Do not forsake the elderly

Published November 25, 2022, 12:05 AM

by Manila Bulletin

“Do not cast me away when I am old; do not forsake me when my strength is gone.”

Citing this biblical passage from Psalm 71:9, Manila Rep. Bienvenido Abante Jr. called for the establishment of a geriatric hospital and more benefits for senior citizens.

In pushing for measures to care for the elderly, Abante cited the Longitudinal Study of Aging and Health in the Philippines (LSAHP), showing that “Filipinos aged 60 and above are far less healthy and economically secure than the younger, working-age Philippine citizens.”

The study was presented at the recent “Policy Priorities for Dignified Aging Webinar,” organized by the Congressional Policy and Budget Research Department.

To underscore the urgency of his call, the congressman said indicators in the LSAHP study “reinforce the case for better care, increased benefits, and special programs to address the concerns of our senior citizens.”

“In the twilight of their lives, our senior citizens should be able to rely not just on their families, but also on the state. Having served as productive members of society, they have earned the right to rest, retire, and live the rest of their days free from sickness and stress,” he said. “I feel that the greatest concerns of most of them that need to be addressed with urgency are financial assistance, mobility, medical and health care, and recreational and health activities, which may ultimately address the issues of stress and depression among them.”

Abante has filed House Bill No. 191 (Geriatric Health Act) that calls for the establishment of a National Center for Geriatric Health and Research Institute as well as regional geriatric specialty centers in DOH-retained hospitals. Aside from this, Abante also filed HB 4543 (An Act Increasing and Expanding the Benefits Granted to Senior Citizens).

The Manila solon’s move is aligned with the UN Decade of Healthy Ageing, a global collaboration that “seeks to reduce health inequities and improve the lives of older people, their families and communities through collective action in four areas: changing how we think, feel and act toward age and ageism; developing communities in ways that foster the abilities of older people; delivering person-centered integrated care and primary health services responsive to older people; and providing older people who need it with access to quality long-term care.”

The United Nations General Assembly declared 2021–2030 the UN Decade of Healthy Ageing after the World Health Organization (WHO) observed that “people worldwide are living longer,” noting that one in six people in the world will be aged 60 years and above by 2030.

On the domestic front, the Commission on Population and Development (POPCOM), citing data from the Philippine Statistics Authority, said that in 2020, Filipinos 60 years old and above comprised 8.5 percent of the population, or 9.2 million — more than 50 percent higher than the 4.5-million elderly population in 2000.

We express hope Congress would heed the Manila congressman’s call because of its social impact, it’s a response to the UN’s global collaboration, and its biblical implication.

We need to care for the elderly.

As we begin another liturgical year

By Fr. Roy Cimagala *

THE season of Advent, which this year starts on November 27, marks another beginning of the liturgical year or the Church year. The immediate thought that comes to mind in this transition of the old and new liturgical years is that while we should have the mind of ending well and also beginning well, we should neither forget that this cycle of life is meant to catapult us to the eternal life where there will be no more changes of seasons and shifts of days and nights.

We have to understand then that the season of Advent implies that we have to learn how to begin again very well. What is presumed is that we have a global picture of our life. 

We ought to know the different constitutive elements of our life here on earth as well as their relations among each other. We have to distinguish as well as relate the different dimensions of our life, like the material and the spiritual, the temporal and the eternal, the natural and the supernatural, the mundane and the sacred, the theory and the praxis, piety and morals, work and prayer, etc.

In this regard, we have to learn how to be properly focused amid the many distractions we have today. At the moment, we can see a disturbing development involving many people, especially the young. A big segment of the people is getting addicted to games and the many other novelties played out in the Internet and in the new technologies.

They are now more self-centered and self-absorbed, prone to idleness, laziness and comfort and pleasure seeking. God and their relationship to others are all but blotted out of their consciousness.

In this regard, we have to be most careful in handling our intentions. They play a strategic role in our life, for how and where we direct them would determine whether we want to be with God and simply with our own selves.

         Our intentions express who and where in the end we want to be. Do we choose God, or do we simply choose ourselves, or the world in general? It’s actually a choice between good and evil.

       

           Even if we are not aware, or refuse to be aware, of this choice, which is usually the case, the choice between God and us, between good and evil is always made with every human act we do. 

             

             We need to realize then that we have to take utmost care of our intention, making it as explicit as possible, and honing it to get engaged with its proper and ultimate object, who is God. 

We should try our best to shun being simply casual or cavalier about this responsibility. We can easily play around with it, since intentions are almost invariably hidden from public knowledge. We are urged to be most sincere in directing our intentions properly.

We can easily fall into hypocrisy and deception, doing what can appear good externally but is not internally, since we could refuse giving glory to God, which is the proper intention to have, and instead feed and stir our vanity, pride, greed, lust, etc.

             Our intentions can and should only have at their core the love of God, the giving glory to God. As St. Paul once indicated, “Whether you eat or drink, or whatsoever else you do, do all to the glory of God.” (1 Cor 10,31) That’s how our acts become good, or moral. Otherwise, they are bad, or at least dangerous.

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

Email: roycimagala@gmail.com

Global Peace Festival set in Clark

By The Manila Times

THE Global Peace Foundation will host the Global Peace Festival 2022 on December 1 to 3 at Clark Global City in Pampanga with the theme "One Family Under God: A Vision for a World of Freedom and Peace."

The event, which was launched on Wednesday at the Marriott Hotel in Clark, Pampanga, will gather thousands of global peace advocates from all over the world. It will provide them with a platform to exchange best practices and build multisector collaborations to promote long-term peace and development.

The Philippine national motto will be highlighted at the event — Maka-Diyos, Maka-tao, Makakalikasan at Makabansa (For God, People, Nature and Country). The phrase expresses a collection of four essential Filipino principles, each of which is linked to the others.

"It is exactly in times of uncertainty that a clear vision is needed to provide solutions to the many vexing problems of our age," Dr. Hyun Jin Preston Moon, chairman of the Global Peace Foundation, said in his speech.

The three-day event will feature three major programs — the Service Learning Program, Global Peace Leadership Conference and the Global Peace Festival.

The Service-Learning Program focuses primarily on young people and addresses local issues in celebration of International Volunteers' Day through simultaneous service project missions by women and the youth.

The Global Peace Leadership Conference is a high-level strategic event that aims to build networks of key leaders and address critical issues on education, women, corporate social responsibility, religious freedom, peace and security, and the media.

The Global Peace Festival, meanwhile, will be the highlight of the event. It aims to inspire, motivate and activate a global network of people to work together to realize the dream of One Family Under God.

The famous KPop co-ed group K.A.R.D, PPop Girl Group BINI and the Filipino Autotelic will perform live and free of charge during the peace concert.

The main organizer, Global Peace Foundation, is an international nonsectarian, nonpartisan, nonprofit organization established in 2009. It aims to promote an innovative, values-based approach for peace motivated by the idea of One Family Under God.

The Global Peace Festival was first launched in the Philippines in 2007.

DMW warns of fraudulent job offers on Facebook

by Jun Marcos Tadios, MB

Department of Migrant Workers (DMW) Secretary Susan Ople warned the public, especially those seeking jobs abroad, against online illegal recruitment scheme offering jobs for Filipinos to work in Myanmar and Thailand.

This, after the government rescued 12 overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) who were duped into working as online scammers allegedly being run by Chinese mafia in Myanmar.

Ople said she met with the rescued victims of a Chinese call center based in a remote area in Myanmar near the border of Thailand and was informed that most of the victims were offered a job as “customer service relations” and “technical support” staff in a Chinese-operated company.

“According to the victims, they were recruited online via Facebook and promised a monthly salary of P40,000 for six months of work as data encoders, customer service relations, and technical support staff,” said Ople.

“They were also made to believe that they would be working in Thailand but ended up in a ‘techno park’ in a remote area in Myanmar that took eight hours to reach by land travel and by foot,” she added.

The victims were part of a larger group of 12 people rescued from their Chinese handlers through the coordinated efforts of the Office of Senator Risa Hontiveros, the DMW, and the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA).

“Our department wishes to thank Senator Risa Hontiveros. It was a communication between one of the victims and the staff of Senator Risa that triggered a lot of things. She met one of the victims yesterday and I met around 10 of the human trafficking survivors,” Ople echoed.

The victims confessed to Ople that they were assigned to a cubicle and given instructions through Google Translate.

“They (OFWs) were instructed by the Chinese to enter dating apps and other social media platforms to search and cultivate relations with potential bitcoin investors,” the official added.

Meanwhile, acting POEA Administrator and DMW Undersecretary Bernard Olalia signed Advisory No. 54 on August 2, 2022, suspending any further deployment to Myanmar.

The advisory warns aspiring OFWs from applying for jobs in Myanmar due to violence and armed conflict and the rising incident of illegal recruitment and human trafficking.

 

Peso appreciates to P56-level

by Lee C. Chipongian, MB

The peso strengthened vis-à-vis the softer US dollar on Wednesday, Nov. 23, at P56.94, appreciating by P0.43 from its close of P57.37 the day before.

This is the first time the peso was back at the P56-level since the first week of July this year.

Based on Bankers Association of the Philippines data, the peso closed at its strongest on Wednesday, after hitting a low of P57.33, but still better than the previous close.

PH peso/Manila Bulletin article photo

The spot market’s weighted average rate was P57.203 versus P57.394 last Tuesday. Total volume stood at $687.85 million from $684.40 million.

The US dollar has been weakening in the last month following the US Federal Reserve’s pronouncements of lesser rate increases in the next quarters. The tamer US inflation which was still decades high, is also contributing to the softening of the greenback.

When the US dollar was its strongest, the peso depreciated to P59 on Sept. 29, the lowest exchange rate on record. The previous record was P56.45 in 2004.

The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) in its latest Monetary Policy Report said the exchange rate could remain above the P55-level until next year and possibly in 2024.

The inter-agency Development Budget Coordination Council (DBCC) has an exchange rate assumptions of P51 to 53 versus the greenback for 2022, and P51 to P55 for 2023 and 2024. The DBCC approved the exchange rate assumptions last July 8, when the peso was at P56.

The BSP said the projected exchange rate reflects “the continued depreciation of the peso as well as higher outlook for US interest rates” and that it was “consistent with cumulative policy rate hikes by the Federal Reserve of 425 bps (basis points) in 2022 and 50 bps in 2023.”

Since June this year, the strong US dollar has caused the peso to sharply depreciate. It fell to P53 on June 10, P54 on June 17, P55 on June 29, P56 on July 7, P57 on Sept. 6, P58 on Sept. 21 and P59 on Sept. 29.

The country’s exchange rate policy supports a freely floating exchange rate system where the BSP leaves it to market forces to dictate the exchange rate level. The BSP will only enter the spot market to ensure “order and temper destabilizing swings” in the peso-US dollar rate.

How should men dress style and look classy, especially in the Philippines?

 

Philippine Deep Dive

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Following

Answered by 

Ronna Lou

 

The Philippines has humid weather, so you should wear something comfortable and breathable such as linen or cotton polo.

Also, wear light colors like white or nude to appear neat and decent. If you don’t have a polo, a plain shirt will suffice.

More importantly, avoid wearing shorts or jogging pants if you don’t want to look sloppy or unpresentable. Wear well-fitted denim jeans instead. In terms of shoes, I recommend wearing loafers or sneakers.

Remember, less is more. With a minimalist look, you will look elegant without much effort.

Related read: How to Dress in the Philippines

Filipinos prefer sari-sari stores during inflationary times – study

by Bernie Cahiles-Magkilat

More Filipinos, even the rich, are keeping their proximity stores, mostly sari-sari stores and small convenient stores and groceries as important source of supply, a trend that is expected to continue during the inflationary period, a new consumer survey revealed.

The latest survey by Kantar, the world’s leading marketing data and analytics company, showed that while the economy has fully reopened and consumers are also going out to the malls and the formal shopping channels, they also continued to source from the small proximity channels as they adopt to inflationary times. 

In the past 12 months, Laurice Obana, Shopper Insight Director at the Worldpanel Division of Kantar in the Philippines, said the lower class have increased their spending in sari-sari stores.

Since the economy is experiencing inflationary times, Kantar said the lower D and E or the socio-economic classes prefer to go to proximity store and buy only what they need depending on the size of their pockets.

Data showed that the D and E classes have been going to the small stores 18 times in a month from 15 times during the pandemic while the middle class are maintaining a 50:50 ratio between proximity stores and supermarkets and hypermarkets.

The upper class are going back to the big grocery stores, supermarkets and hypermarkets but they are not leaving the small stores, Obana added. 

“We are seeing a continuing trend (buying from proximity small store channel), it’s not faltering or decreasing. The small channel is very relevant during the inflationary period,” said Obana.

Kantar further said that to adapt to inflationary times, Filipinos have become more discerning in their choices when it comes to Fast Moving Consumer Goods (FMCG). They are opting for brands and retailers that offer the most value, convenience and product assortment to get their money’s worth.

Kantar tracks the FMCG purchases of 5,000 local households, the largest shopper panel in the Philippines.

“Filipinos put a premium on value. While value can be as straightforward as cheaper goods or paying less for the same quantity, other factors such as the increase in gas prices, traffic and uncomfortable modes of transportation have redefined value in more encompassing terms when it comes to shopping. What we have seen is that, in general for packaged goods, shoppers are coping with rising prices by being more open to value brands. To some extent, however, they also take into consideration where to shop. Nowadays, with multiple retailers and channel options within reach, shoppers can easily adapt to what would best fit their budgets and lifestyle that will address their needs at the moment,” explained Obana.

According to Kantar, there is a bit of pressure on Hypermarkets and Supermarkets as most Filipinos who are feeling the economic strain are buying their basic FMCG needs in smaller proximity stores. In fact, 41 percent of FMCG purchases in 2022 are made in neighborhood sari-sari stores. This is a six percent increase compared to purchases made in 2020. Meanwhile, a six percent value share decline in hypermarkets and supermarkets was noted from 34 percent in 2020 to 28 percent in 2022.

Obana added that Filipino shoppers are discerning on the choices they make when it comes to their channel and retailer of choice. Value delivery in forms of rewards, lower prices or promotions is a given. Convenience or the ease of access and availability of options are also important factors that shoppers now consider.

Bacterial infections the ‘second leading cause of death worldwide’

by Agence-France-Presse

PARIS, France – Bacterial infections are the second leading cause of death worldwide, accounting for one in eight of all deaths in 2019, the first global estimate of their lethality revealed on Tuesday.

The massive new study, published in the Lancet journal, looked at deaths from 33 common bacterial pathogens and 11 types of infection across 204 countries and territories.

The pathogens were associated with 7.7 million deaths – 13.6 percent of the global total – in 2019, the year before the Covid-19 pandemic took off. 

That made them the second-leading cause of death after ischaemic heart disease, which includes heart attacks, the study said.

Just five of the 33 bacteria were responsible for half of those deaths: Staphylococcus aureus, Escherichia coli, Streptococcus pneumoniae, Klebsiella pneumoniae and Pseudomonas aeruginosa.

S. aureus is a bacterium common in human skin and nostrils but behind a range of illnesses, while E. coli commonly causes food poisoning.

The study was conducted under the framework of the Global Burden of Disease, a vast research program funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation involving thousands of researchers across the world. 

“These new data for the first time reveal the full extent of the global public health challenge posed by bacterial infections,” said study co-author Christopher Murray, the director of US-based Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation.

“It is of utmost importance to put these results on the radar of global health initiatives so that a deeper dive into these deadly pathogens can be conducted and proper investments are made to slash the number of deaths and infections.”

The research points to stark differences between poor and wealthy regions.

In Sub-Saharan Africa, there were 230 deaths per 100,000 population from the bacterial infections.

That number fell to 52 per 100,000 in what the study called the “high-income super-region” which included countries in Western Europe, North America and Australasia.

The authors called for increased funding, including for new vaccines, to lessen the number of deaths, also warning against “unwarranted antibiotic use.” 

DepED to kickstart 6th National Climate Change Conference on Nov. 23

by Charie Mae F. Abarca

In partnership with the University of the Philippines Los Baños (UPLB) University Library ALIVErary BOOKS program, the Department of Education (DepED) will launch the 6th National Climate Change Conference (NCCC) in November 2022.

The three-day virtual conference will be launched beginning Wednesday, Nov. 23 until Friday, Nov. 25. 

6th National Climate Change Conference (DepED / Facebook)

“Naglalayon ang tatlong araw na komperensiya na paigtingin ang kaalaman at pataasin ang partisipasyon ng mga mag-aaral, academic community, at mga kawani ng DepED ukol sa climate change adaptation and mitigation interventions (The three-day conference aims to intensify the knowledge and increase the participation of students, academic community, and DepED staff on climate change adaptation and mitigation intervention),” said DepED on Tuesday, Nov. 22.

According to DepED, the 6th NCCC’s theme will focus on “Responding to Climate Change: Role of Education towards Climate Change Action.”

Among the topics that will be discussed include the following: Science and impacts of climate action; librarians’ perspective on climate change; climate change disaster risks and response; as well the impacts of climate change on justice and responsibility.

Meanwhile, to further extend its support to Republic Act 9729 or the Climate Change Act of 2009, UPLB, together with DepED Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Service (DRRMS) will build “future-proof libraries” as part of its mission to disseminate climate change-related knowledge to Filipinos.

Beware of fake medicines—health expert

by Analou de Vera

Medicines (File Photo)

An infectious disease expert reminded the public to remain vigilant against fake medicines as this may cause an adverse effect on one’s health.

“Ang magiging epekto niyan sa katawan talagang hindi maganda. So, kailangan talaga natin na suriin (The effect of that on the body is not good. So, we really need to check),” said infectious disease expert Dr. Rontgene Solante during a public briefing on Tuesday, Nov. 22.

“Unang-una hindi natin alam kung mas mataas ang mga adverse reaction or reaction ng mga gamot na ‘to dahil hindi natin alam kung ano ang quality (First of all, we don’t know the possible adverse reactions that can happen [if you take these] drugs because we don’t know its quality),” he added.

Solante advised the public to only purchase medicines from “authorized and reputable drug stores.”

He urged the public to be extra cautious when buying medicines online.

“More importantly siguro we discourage online unless the online site na iyan ay authorized government or private na mga healthcare delivery drugs or drug stores (we discourage the online purchase [of medicines] unless the online site is authorized by the government or these are private healthcare delivery drugs or drug stores),” he said.