NTC urges public to report scam messages

By Francis Earl Cueto, Manila Times

September 19, 2022

THE National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) over the weekend encouraged the public to report scam text messages.

Those who will file complaints need to submit their complete name, address, email and contact number as well as the cellphone number that received the messages, a screenshot of the text scam message with the sender's mobile number, and a photo of any of their government-issued IDs to kontratextscam@ntc.gov.ph.

"Your personal data will be kept strictly confidential in accordance with the Data Privacy Act," the NTC said in a statement.

Reports can also be sent to the NTC's website through a text scam complaint form.

According to the regulator, the text message coming from an unknown mobile number that contains a job offer, promises cash and discounts, and may contain a clickable web link is considered a "text scam message."

Numerous text blasts warning consumers about the scam were sent by the telecom companies upon the prodding of the NTC.

Meanwhile, the NTC continued to remind the public to simply ignore the messages by not replying to it or clicking the web link, if there is.

"Once reported to the NTC, immediately block the number and delete the text scam message," it said.

Bigger price cut for diesel seen

By Richmond Mercurio - The Philippine Star 

Unioil, in its fuel price forecast yesterday, said diesel could go down by P3.80 to P4.00 per liter, while gasoline could either have no price change or a rollback of P0.15 per liter.

MANILA, Philippines — Motorists may see a bigger reduction in diesel prices than previously expected, as well as a slight rollback in gasoline prices this coming week.

Unioil, in its fuel price forecast yesterday, said diesel could go down by P3.80 to P4.00 per liter, while gasoline could either have no price change or a rollback of P0.15 per liter.

The expected decrease in diesel is higher than the earlier forecasted reduction of between P2.50 to P3 per liter as of Friday.

As for gasoline, Friday’s estimates of industry players pointed to no adjustment to a P0.50 per liter increase.

This would be the third consecutive week of rollbacks if the projected decline in prices of fuel products pushes through.

Oil firms will announce tomorrow the final price adjustments, which will take effect on Tuesday.

Last week, oil companies implemented a P0.45 per liter decrease in gasoline, P1.45 per liter for diesel and P1.70 per liter for kerosene.

These has resulted in a year-to-date net increase of P16.50 per liter for gasoline, P34.80 per liter for diesel and P29.90 per liter for kerosene, based on data from the DOE.

A NOBLE HEART AND MIND

To be noble one must not only be honest. One must act bravely and decisively in even the most dire of circumstances. Maybe at the end of this piece, I'll tread the footsteps of other fellow columnists and commentators. So it will be!

If you say that someone is a noble person, you admire and respect them because they are unselfish and morally good

Pride comes before a fall - but never magnanimity. The dictionary defines magnanimity as in greatness of mind and generosity of heart especially when it comes to forgiveness, Often times, Filipinos are really magnanimous people. They seem to have the quality of being high souled, rising above pettiness or meanness and the generosity in overlooking injury or insult.

The late Harry Emerson Fosdick, a famous Protestant teacher wrote, "No man ever saved anybody, or served any great or left any enduring impression, who was not willing to forget indignities, near to grudges. The world's saviors have all, in one way and another, loved their enemies and done them good!" Would you agree with this?

Magnanimity, applied to relations between nations and people, transforms hostility into helpfulness. Maybe, once upon a time. Maybe even nowadays. Consider the massive assistance of the United States provided to its former enemies following World War II, enabling them to rebuild their blasted cities and shattered economies.

"Once upon a time", no West Berlin inhabitant will forget the U.S. airlift during the East German-Russian blockade, when the so-called "Raisin Bomber Planes" kept West-Berlin and its people alive.

What quality in human character do you consider the most admirable of all? How about tolerance toward another's point of view without smugness? How about refusing to judge another's action and motives without knowing first what lies behind him?

U.S. writer Clarence W. Hall voiced: "Magnanimity must be developed and habitual by practice, but it's a virtue that sweetens and glorifies life!"

People with a noble heart and mind are fond of day dreams. Of course, fantasies don't have to become a flight away from reality. In fact, psychologists are discovering that they can play a creative role in self-development and a better mutual understanding. It's also one of the best things for the well being of a whole nation.

BINI to make blooms ‘Feel Good’ in album launch showcase this Oct. 1

by Manila Bulletin Entertainment

The BINI fever is officially on as the all-female P-Pop act is returning with a new album this month and an album launch showcase happening on Saturday, Oct. 1, at the SM City North EDSA Sky Dome.

Dubbed “Feel Good,” the intimate event will give BINI’s fans called BLOOMs the chance to spend an exciting night filled with electrifying performances, fun games, and unforgettable bonding experience with the girls.

Regular (P500), VIP (P1,200), and SVIP (P1,800) tickets for the album launch showcase are now available via SM Tickets, which all comes with an entrance pass, a physical copy of BINI’s upcoming album, and a poster.

Meanwhile, VIP and SVIP ticketholders have a chance to play games with BINI members Aiah, Colet, Maloi, Gwen, Stacey, Mikha, Jhoanna, and Sheena, while those with SVIP tickets will also enjoy a meet and greet with them.

Prior to the showcase, BINI will drop its pre-album release single “I Feel Good” and its music video on September 22 (Thursday) followed by its sophomore album along with its comeback single and music video on September 29 (Thursday). The album will have five original and two bonus tracks, including the previously released single “Lagi.”

This September, the ‘nation’s girl group’ also collaborated with global cosmetics brand Maybelline New York by releasing the empowering single “Made For All,” which serves as a confidence booster for those who feel ashamed to embrace their own beauty. The song topped iTunes PH upon its release and was also included in Spotify Philippines’ New Music Friday editorial playlist.

Don’t miss the chance to finally witness BINI’s talent in person! Buy your tickets now for their “Feel Good” album launch showcase and watch out for their upcoming album. Get regular updates by following BINI_ph on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and TikTok, and subscribing to their official YouTube channel, BINI Official.

‘Nanmadol’ intensifies into a typhoon; ‘Habagat’ affects most of PH

by Charie Mae F. Abarca, Manila Bulletin

The weather disturbance outside the Philippine area of responsibility (PAR) has intensified into a typhoon, the state weather bureau confirmed on Thursday afternoon, Sept. 15.

Typhoon Nanmadol was last spotted 1,655 kilometers (km) east northeast of extreme Northern Luzon outside PAR with maximum sustained winds of 120 kilometers per hour (kph), and gustiness of up to 150 kph.

It is moving northeastward at 15 kph and it remains less likely to directly affect the country. However, PAGASA warned that this weather disturbance is expected to further enhance the southwest monsoon, locally called “habagat.”

(PAGASA / Himawari)

The typhoon-enhanced southwest monsoon will then bring scattered rain showers and thunderstorms in Palawan, Mindoro provinces, Western Visayas, Zamboanga Peninsula, Basilan, Sulu, and Tawi-tawi within the forecast period.

Residents of these areas were advised to remain vigilant against possible flash floods and landslides that may occur during moderate to heavy rains.

Partly cloudy to cloudy skies with isolated rain showers may prevail over Metro Manila and the rest of the country due to the southwest monsoon and localized thunderstorms.

Meanwhile, the latest forecast track for typhoon Nanmadol showed that the cyclone will still enter the Philippine boundary.

“Posible pa rin itong pumasok ng PAR bukas, ngunit ito ay [inaasahang] dadaplis lamang dito sa northeastern na kanto ng ating PAR. Pagpasok nito bukas ng umaga ay lalabas [din ito] either hapon o gabi (It may still enter PAR tomorrow, but it is expected to just pass in the northeastern corner of the country’s area of responsibility. When it enters tomorrow morning, it will also exit the Philippine boundary either in the afternoon or evening),” said Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical, and Astronomical Services Administration (PAGASA) weather specialist Raymond Ordinadio.

“Halos isang araw lang itong mananatili sa ating area of responsibility kaya wala itong magiging direktang epekto sa anumang bahagi ng bansa (It will only stay in our area of responsibility for almost one day so it will not have a direct effect on any part of the country),” he furthered.

Nanmadol will be given the domestic name Josie once inside the Philippine boundary.

GCash users hit 66 million

By Francis Earl Cueto, Manila Bulletin

DIGITAL wallet GCash reached another milestone as it breached the P3-trillion mark in gross transaction value (GTV) in the first half of the year and hit 66 million users.

The value nearly matched its P3.8 trillion full-year GTV in 2021.

GCash expects to end 2022 with P6 trillion GTV.

The company announced that its user base has grown to 66 million, with four out of five adults in the Philippines having a GCash account.

"We've seen higher user engagement now that things have started to normalize, further proof that GCash has become embedded in the everyday lives of Filipinos," Martha Sazon, GCash President and CEO, said in a statement.

GCash also doubled down on its merchant acquisition efforts and partnerships resulting in a merchant and social seller base of 5.2 million, 1.9 times higher than the same quarter of last year.

This makes GCash the largest digital ecosystem in the Philippines.

It also expanded its cash-in and cash-out outlets to 339,000 - 5.7 times higher year on year. In addition, its lifestyle portal GLife has 520 merchants and is introducing new categories such as content, health, insurance and e-government.

With all these developments, GCash said it continues to be the number one finance app in the country.

"It just goes to show that the Filipinos' shift to a more digital lifestyle is not limited to those during lockdowns.We continue to see the adoption increasing, and even the everyday use and use case diversity are growing. I think the adoption is here to stay and we're not seeing it plateauing in the near future," Sazon said.

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

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."