You plan to move to the Philippines? Wollen Sie auf den Philippinen leben?

There are REALLY TONS of websites telling us how, why, maybe why not and when you'll be able to move to the Philippines. I only love to tell and explain some things "between the lines". Enjoy reading, be informed, have fun and be entertained too!

Ja, es gibt tonnenweise Webseiten, die Ihnen sagen wie, warum, vielleicht warum nicht und wann Sie am besten auf die Philippinen auswandern könnten. Ich möchte Ihnen in Zukunft "zwischen den Zeilen" einige zusätzlichen Dinge berichten und erzählen. Viel Spass beim Lesen und Gute Unterhaltung!


Visitors of germanexpatinthephilippines/Besucher dieser Webseite.Ich liebe meine Flaggensammlung!

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Friday, September 16, 2022

Air pollution worse in Metro Manila


COVERED IN HAZE Smog blankets parts of Metro Manila as seen from a spot in Antipolo City on June 29 2021. Phivolcs chief Renato Solidum said the haze is caused by pollution from vehicles and not from Taal Volcano, which has been emitting thick smoke as high as three-kilometers from its main crater over the last few days. FILE PHOTO BY JOHN ORVEN VERDOTE


By Bella Cariaso, Manila Times


Air pollution in Metro Manila has worsened with the opening of businesses, an official of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) said on Friday.

The DENR's Environmental Management Bureau (EMB) Director William Cuñado said that during the implementation of Covid-19 restrictions, all the monitoring stations in the National Capital Region (NCR) registered green which meant good air quality.

Because of the lockdowns, only 10 percent or 35,000 of the 350,000 vehicles in the NCR were allowed to operate.

"During the pandemic, there was a reduction of 90 percent in volume of the vehicles plying within Metro Manila. Because of this, there was a dramatic reduction on air pollutants. There was a good quality of air because of the small volume of vehicles. Almost all the stations had green color, meaning to say, that we had good quality of air within Metro Manila," Cuñado said.

However, as pandemic restrictions eased, a gradual change in the air quality was noticed.

"Now that the vehicles allowed outside are almost the same compared to the volume we have prior to the pandemic, from green, we have monitored yellow or even orange colors," Cuñado said.

Yellow signifies fair air quality while orange means air quality can be unhealthy for sensitive groups such as those with respiratory problems like asthma.

"The air pollution could aggravate their ailments," Cuñado said.

He added that air pollution is high during heavy traffic in a particular area.

"This is the accumulation of gases discharged in a certain area, especially if there is a high concentration of people that are moving and there is heavy traffic. There is an increase in the particulate matters and other substances," the official said.

More Filipinos feel better off – survey

By Kaithreen Cruz, Manila Times


MORE Filipinos felt better off in June this year than they were a year ago, a Social Weather Stations (SWS) survey showed.

The number of respondents who said their life was better jumped to 29 percent from 18 percent in 2021.

The percentage of respondents who said their quality of life worsened dropped by 18 percent from 49 percent.

The resulting net gainer score — the percentage of respondents who were better off minus those who were worse off — was -2, which the SWS considers as fair. In the previous year, the net gainer score was -31 (very low).

Despite the increase, the net gainer score was still 20 points below the pre-pandemic level of +18 (very high) in December 2019.

"The net gainer score was generally negative until 2015 when it rose to positive numbers until the drastic deterioration beginning with the Covid-19 pandemic lockdowns. It has since trended back upwards but still has not reached the positive range," the SWS noted.

By geographical area, the net gainer score was highest in Metro Manila at +6 (high), followed by Balance Luzon at +5 (high), Mindanao at -7 (fair), and Visayas at -17 (mediocre).

Compared to last year, the net gainer score was up in all areas — by 36 points in Metro Manila, 32 points in Balance Luzon, 23 points in the Visayas, and 24 points in Mindanao.

Among students, the net gainer score was at -12 among non-elementary graduates, -7 among elementary graduates, +3 among junior high school graduates, and +2 among college graduates.

The SWS said the survey results also showed that hunger was significantly higher among those who got worse off (tagged as "losers") than those who were better off ("gainers") in the past 12 months.

Involuntary hunger was 14.9 percent among losers and 9 percent among gainers.

The net gainers were -11 (mediocre) among the "poor," +8 (high) among "borderline poor," and +6 (high) among "not poor."

The "poor" have more "losers" and fewer "gainers" than the "borderline poor" and "not poor."

SWS conducted face-to-face interviews with 1,500 adult respondents nationwide for the survey, 600 from Balance Luzon and 300 each from Metro Manila, the Visayas, and Mindanao, from June 26 to 29.

The poll results have a sampling error margin of ±2.5 percent for national percentages, a sampling margin error of ±4 percent in Balance Luzon, and a sampling margin error of ±5.7 percent in Metro Manila, the Visayas and Mindanao.

The SWS said the survey was not commissioned.

The duty to evangelize


 



By Fr. Roy Cimagala *



WE have to be more aware and more willing to carry out our Christian duty to evangelize, to go out into the whole world, preaching the Good News, and baptizing people, as Christ himself clearly told his disciples. (cfr. Mk 16,15)


Christ, of course, gave us the proper example to follow. In the gospel, it is said that “Jesus journeyed from one town and village to another, preaching and proclaiming the good news of the Kingdom of God. Accompanying him were the Twelve and some women who had been cured of evil spirits and infirmities…” (Lk 8,1-2)


It’s good that the Pope recently made another push for a more effective evangelization all over the world. And it is also worth noting that a group is doing the same push, encouraging the parishes to be more missional and not just stuck in the maintenance aspect of parish life.


Of course, we should never forget that the energy and success we can expect in our evangelization and missionary efforts can only come about if we are truly animated by the spirit of Christ. Otherwise, everything would just be a show. Our apostolic zeal can only be an expression and a consequence of a vibrant and healthy spiritual life.


Let’s remember that while evangelization and mission work urges us to reach out, to break new grounds, to spread the Good News as widely as possible, we should be more interested in how to keep the integral Christian life going. We should not be interested only in proclaiming the gospel of Christ, but more in how the spirit of Christ is lived consistently and abidingly.


As one saint put it, while conversion is a matter of a moment, sanctification is a matter of a lifetime. There has to be the appropriate mechanisms and structures to facilitate the continuing accompaniment of those evangelized.


We should never forget that sanctification is and should be our main business in this life, our constant concern all throughout. And that’s simply because at the end of the day, at the end of our life, that is what truly matters. Everything else is meant only as a means, an occasion or a reason for pursuing this ultimate goal of ours.


St. Paul said it clearly: “This is the will of God, your sanctification.” (1 Thes 4,3) St. Peter echoed the same sentiment: “Just as He who called you is holy, so be holy in all you do, for it is written, ‘Be holy, because I am holy.’” (1 Pt 1,15-16)


Christ, of course, repeatedly told us about this. “Be perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect.” (Mt 5,48) And this ideal can be attained, not only after our death, but even now, as we cruise through this vale of tears of ours, because Christ does it with us and for us.


Christ has given us all the means. In fact, he has given us his very own self, because we can only be truly holy when we become entirely “alter Christus” (another Christ), if not “ipse Christus” (Christ himself).


We have to realize that all the situations of our life here on earth, including those that involve our miseries, failures and sin, can be and should be a means and occasion for sanctification if they are referred to Christ. And that’s because Christ precisely would show us how to convert everything into a means of our sanctification.


In our evangelization and mission work, this truth of our faith should be made clear.


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

Email: roycimagala@gmail.com


Thursday, September 15, 2022

End of Covid pandemic in sight – WHO

By Agence France-Presse

September 15, 2022


GENEVA: The number of newly reported Covid-19 cases has dropped dramatically, the World Health Organization said Wednesday, urging the world to seize the opportunity to end the pandemic.

Newly reported cases of the disease, which has killed millions since being identified in late 2019, last week fell to the lowest level since March 2020, said WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.

"We have never been in a better position to end the pandemic," he told reporters. "We are not there yet, but the end is in sight."

But the world needed to step up to "seize this opportunity," he added.

"If we don't take this opportunity now, we run the risk of more variants, more deaths, more disruption, and more uncertainty."

According to WHO's latest epidemiological report on Covid-19, the number of reported cases fell 28 percent to 3.1 million during the week ending September 11, following a 12-percent-drop a week earlier.

But the agency has warned that the falling number of reported cases is deceptive, since many countries have cut back on testing and may not be detecting the less serious cases.

"The number of cases that are being reported to WHO we know are an underestimate," Maria Van Kerkhove, the WHO technical lead on Covid, told reporters.


NKorea says new fever cases were flu, not Covid

"We feel that far more cases are actually circulating than are being reported to us," she said, cautioning that the virus "is circulating at a very intense level around the world at the present time."

Since the start of the pandemic, WHO has tallied more than 605 million cases, and some 6.4 million deaths, although both those numbers are also believed to be serious undercounts.

A WHO study published in May based on excess mortality seen in various countries during the pandemic estimated that up to 17 million people may have died from Covid in 2020 and 2021.

Van Kerkhove noted that going forward there will likely be "future waves of infection, potentially at different time points throughout the world, caused by different sub-variants of Omicron or even different variants of concern."


Global monkeypox cases dropped last week – WHO

But, she added, "those future waves of infection do not need to translate into future waves of death."

In a bid to help countries to do what is needed to rein in the virus, the WHO on Wednesday published six policy briefs.


WHO urges caution after dog catches monkeypox

Among the recommendations, the WHO is urging countries to invest in vaccinating 100 percent of the most at-risk groups, including health workers and the elderly, and to keep up testing and sequencing for the virus.

"These policy briefs are an urgent call for governments to take a hard look at their policies, and strengthen them for Covid-19 and future pathogens with pandemic potential," Tedros said.

"We can end this pandemic together, but only if all countries, manufacturers, communities and individuals step up and seize this opportunity."

WHO emergencies director Michael Ryan agreed.

"Even as the pandemic wanes, and as the number of cases may drop, we are going to have to maintain high levels of vigilance," he told reporters.

"We still have a highly mutable, evolving virus that has shown us time and time again over two and a half years how it can adapt, how it can change."

DoH must function without permanent chief – Marcos


By Kristina Maralit, Manila Times


THE Department of Health (DoH), though still without a permanent head, "must be kept functioning," as it is not just the coronavirus disease the country needs to address but other public health and safety concerns, President Ferdinand "Bongbong" Marcos Jr. said.


While he still has yet to make an appointment, Marcos said the government must ensure the country is ready to curb emerging threats from other diseases.


"We have to remember that the DoH is not about Covid-19 alone. It's about public health in general. So that's another side of it, and it's as important as Covid-19 is. The dengue rates are climbing. We also have the second-highest HIV rate of infections in the world," the Chief Executive told TV host-actress Toni Gonzaga in their one-on-one interview.


"TB is coming back. These are things that we have to attend to," he added.


In the case of monkeypox, while other countries have had a surge in infections, the Philippines remains "OK," and he has already sat down with DoH executives "about the acquisition of the monkeypox vaccine."

The best of local, global acts in G Music Festival


Kpop act bugAboo INSTAGRAM PHOTO/ BUGABOO_OFFCL


By Iza Iglesias, Manila Times


Seventeen local and international acts will play at the hybrid G Music Fest on September 17. The concert is part of Globe's "917 GDay" celebrations.


Among the performers for the much-awaited event are Thai indie-pop, neo-soul singer-songwriter Phum Viphurit and Kpop act bugAboo – a six-member South Korean girl group, for whom the G Music Fest will be their first live Philippines performance.


Other confirmed musical acts are homegrown talents The Juans, Kaia, Matthaios, Unique, I Belong to the Zoo, JOEM, Lola Amour, Arthur Miguel, Paul Pablo and many more surprise guests.

 

"The past couple of years have been incredibly challenging for everyone. Now that the world is slowly opening up and we can enjoy life together face-to-face, we're excited to once again bring all the uplifting, lighthearted experiences that our loyal customers may have been missing and needing," said Globe Marketing Head Pia Colby.

Peso inches down at 57.11 vs US dollar

By Tiziana Celine Piatos, Manila Times

September 15, 2022


THE Philippine peso on Wednesday slightly depreciated against the United States dollar at P57.11 in the Philippine Dealing System, but recorded an intraday low of P57.27.

According to the Bankers Association of the Philippines (BAP), the peso trading opened at P57.1 against the dollar.

BAP data showed the peso traded from P57.1 to P56.27, averaging P57.202.

The peso exchange was weaker against the US dollar by 34 centavos, or 0.6 percent, to close at 57.11, the highest since Sept. 8, 2022, when it closed at P57.18.

Michael Ricafort, chief economist at Rizal Commercial Banking Corp., told The Manila Times that the current peso exchange rate could lead to more aggressive local policy rate hikes by the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas.

However, Finance Secretary Benjamin Diokno said on Wednesday during the Development Budget Coordination Committee Briefing to the Senate of the Philippines on the Fiscal Year 2023 Proposed Budget that the impact of the Philippine peso depreciation against the US dollar is "favorable" to the country's budget.

He added that the "net effect of P1 depreciation is a P7.6 [billion] reduction in the country's budget deficit."

Earlier, Ricafort said the peso-dollar exchange rate could "seasonally improve" toward the end of the year after having fallen to record lows.

"The peso is expected to seasonally improve toward the end of the year in view of the seasonal increase in OFW (overseas Filipino worker) remittances and export revenues to be converted to pesos for holiday spending, based on the consistent patterns seen for many years/decades," he added.

However, the peso slightly depreciating on Wednesday also negatively affected investors' sentiment at the Philippine Stock Exchange, along with news from the United States that August inflation hit 8.3 percent or higher than expectations.

Wednesday, September 14, 2022

Marcos: Preserve environment


President Ferdinand "Bongbong" Marcos Jr. led the national simultaneous bamboo and tree planting event in San Mateo, Rizal to mark his 65th birthday on Tuesday. PHOTO BY JOHN RYAN BALDEMOR


By Catherine S. Valente, Manila Bulletin


(UPDATE) PRESIDENT Ferdinand "Bongbong" Marcos Jr. on Tuesday called on the public to unite in protecting and preserving the environment to "make sure that our plans for the country's economy will succeed."


In his speech, the President described the tree-planting activities as "simple yet impactful undertaking[s]" to protect the environment.


"The challenges we hurdled in recent years highlighted the fact that we have one Earth. We must spare no effort to ensure that it survives in the years to come," Marcos said.


"During my address [on the] State of the Nation, I made it clear: 'Preserving the environment is nothing less than preserving life.' And therefore, it can only be one of our important priorities if we wish to make sure that our plans for the country's economy will succeed," he added.


Marcos thanked the Department of the Interior and Local Government, the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) and the Department of Agriculture, for the collaboration that made the events in San Mateo and elsewhere possible.


"We have to do this as a concrete step that we take so that nature is cared for because it desperately needs that care and it desperately needs that attention," he said.


The President said this initiative "will greatly help in raising awareness on environmental welfare and protection."


He also thanked the nongovernment organizations present during the activity.


"Your presence in the selected areas across the country shows your commitment to prioritize Mother Earth and encourage everyone to unite for her benefit," he said. "Indeed, this initiative will contribute to the DENR's National Greening Program, the country's most ambitious reforestation program yet."


With the goal of reducing poverty, Marcos said, ensuring food security, environmental stability, conserving biodiversity, and mitigating climate change and adapting to climate change, more than two million hectares of reforestation sites were established from 2011 to 2021.


"An additional 46,265 hectares are expected to be developed in 2022. The DENR targets 11,631 hectares of enhanced National Greening Program sites in 2023," the President said. "And so, the seedlings that we will plant today will be significant in realizing this goal. This program will generate jobs, will generate opportunities and will generate livelihood for our countrymen."


The Chief Executive said more than the economic benefit of this activity, "we are essentially and primarily investing in ensuring that our planet remains a safe space."


Marcos' first 50 days: Gaining trust and control

"Never mind for us, but we are only custodians of this earth. But more so that we can say to the children, the Filipinos that follow us, that we have taken good care of that, which they will inherit," Marcos added.

"Trees and plants in general are vital to human existence. I thus wish that as we appreciate the impact of this endeavor, we also see it for the symbolic gesture that it is. It is a reminder for us to see past our personal interest and have the future in sight," he said.

Tuesday's kick-off ceremony of the "Buhayin ang Pangangalaga ng Kalikasan" is a government program that aims to plant 8,000 seedlings and bamboo planting stocks in Calabarzon (Cavite, Laguna, Batangas, Rizal and Quezon).


Compos mentis

The tree-planting sites are San Mateo in Rizal; Majayjay, Laguna; Trece Martires City, Cavite; Mataas na Kahoy, Batangas, and Dolores, Quezon.

World in ‘wrong direction’ as climate impacts worsen: UN

by Agence-France-Presse


PARIS, France – Humanity is “going in the wrong direction” on climate change due to its addiction to fossil fuels, the UN said Tuesday in an assessment showing that planet-warming emissions are higher than before the pandemic.

The UN’s World Meteorological Organization and its Environment Programme warned catastrophes will become commonplace should the world economy fail to decarbonise in line with what science says is needed to prevent the worst impacts of global heating.

They pointed to Pakistan’s monumental floods and China’s crop-withering heatwave this year as examples of what to expect.

“Floods, droughts, heatwaves, extreme storms and wildfires are going from bad to worse, breaking records with alarming frequency,” said UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres.

The UN warned last month that the drought gripping the Horn of Africa and threatening millions with acute food shortages was now likely to extend into a fifth year.

“There is nothing natural about the new scale of these disasters. They are the price of humanity’s fossil fuel addiction,” said Guterres.

The UN’s United in Science report underscores how, nearly three years since Covid-19 handed governments a unique opportunity to reassess how to power their economies, countries are ploughing ahead with pollution as normal.

It found that after an unprecedented 5.4 percent fall in emissions in 2020 due to lockdowns and travel restrictions, preliminary data from January-May this year shows global CO2 emissions are 1.2 percent higher than before Covid-19.

This is largely down to large year-on-year increases in the United States, India, and most European countries, the assessment found.

“The science is unequivocal: we are going in the wrong direction,” said WMO Secretary-General Petteri Taalas.

“Greenhouse gas concentrations are continuing to rise, reaching new record highs. Fossil fuel emission rates are now above pre-pandemic levels. The past seven years were the warmest on record.”

Last week the European Union’s Copernicus climate monitor said that summer 2022 was the hottest in Europe and one of the hottest globally since records began in the 1970s.

Tuesday’s report said there was a 93 percent chance that the record for the hottest year globally — currently, 2016 — will be broken within five years.


It warned the continued use of fossil fuels meant the chance of the annual mean global temperature temporarily exceeding 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels in one of the next five years was roughly even (48 percent).

Keeping longer term temperatures below 1.5C is the most ambitious goal of the 2015 Paris Agreement.

Despite more than three decades of UN-lead negotiations, rich polluters show little sign of being willing to make the kind of swingeing emissions cuts that would keep the 1.5C goal in play.

The UN’s Environment Programme, in an update to its annual “emissions gap” assessment following new pledges made at last November’s COP26 summit in Glasgow, said Tuesday that even these promises were far from adequate.

In fact, it said the ambition even in countries’ most recent pledges would need to be four times greater to limit warming to 2C, and seven times higher to make 1.5C.

All told, current worldwide climate policies put Earth on course to warm 2.8C by 2100, UNEP said.

Guterres said that Tuesday’s assessment showed “climate impacts heading into uncharted territory of destruction”.

“Yet each year we double-down on this fossil fuel addiction, even as the symptoms get rapidly worse,” he said in a video message.

Tasneem Essop, executive director of Climate Action Network, said that the forthcoming COP27 climate conference in Egypt needed leaders to agree to new funding to help communities in at-risk nations rebuild after extreme events.

“The terrifying picture painted by the United in Science report is already a lived reality for millions of people facing recurring climate disasters,” she said.

Tuesday, September 13, 2022

Former BI chief-of-staff now new Immigration Commissioner

by Argyll Cyrus Geducos, Manila Bulletin

President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. has named lawyer Norman Tansingco as the new Commissioner of the Bureau of Immigration (BI), Malacañang confirmed.

Bureau of Immigration

Press Secretary Trixie Cruz-Angeles made the confirmation after Tansingco’s appointment circulated on social media on Monday, September 12.

The President signed his appointment paper on Monday. 

Tansingco’s appointment came two weeks after reports circulated that Marcos had appointed lawyer Abraham Espejo Jr. as Immigration Commissioner.

Tansingco is no stranger to the BI. He has been with the Bureau for nearly a decade and was the chief-of-staff of former Immigration Commissioner Marcelino Libanan.

He was also once a technical assistant to the Commissioner.

The Bureau of Immigration enforces the country’s immigration and foreign nationals registration laws.

Justice Secretary Jesus Crispin Remulla once named BI a department that “needs their help.”

Remulla lamented that the BI was the “face of the country” but was embroiled with “extortion syndicate, human trafficking syndicate, and protection syndicates” issues.

Over the past years, the BI was under fire for the so-called “pastillas” scheme that was first exposed in 2020. Under this scheme, Chinese nationals had supposedly entered the country without background checks in exchange for bribes.

It was named “pastillas” because the rolls of grease money involved in the illegal activity, which had supposedly reached P40 billion in October 2020, looked like the said Filipino snack.