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Sunday, July 9, 2023
Germany, France back PH complaint on Chinese harassment
Germany and France have expressed support for the Philippines after another incident of harassment involving China's Coast Guard against its Filipino counterpart right in the country's waters.
German Ambassador to the Philippines Anke Reiffenstuel said an "aggressive behavior," particularly when Chinese personnel made a dangerous maneuver against the Philippine Coast Guard (PCG), "has no place in the South China Sea."
She called for respect toward the rules-based maritime order, with the 2016 Arbitral Ruling pertaining to the Philippines' sovereignty over the West Philippine Sea, as the "center."
Reiffenstuel also agreed with the sentiment of US Ambassador to the Philippines MaryKay Carlson, who had earlier expressed concern about China's "irresponsible" behavior in the waters.
Meanwhile, France also called for a dialogue between concerned parties to resolve possible disputes.
The French Embassy in Manila said it is concerned about the recent developments and is calling for "for respect for international law and the resolution of disputes through dialogue."
"We are resolutely opposed to any use of force or threat to do so. We recall, in this regard, the Arbitration award rendered under UNCLOS on the 12th of July 2016," it added.
On June 30, the PCG said it was "constantly followed, harassed and obstructed" by the CCG after providing support in the naval operation of the Philippine troops.
The incident happened in the waters off Ayungin Shoal, an area legally and internationally recognized as part of the Philippine territory but is being claimed by China.
Japan and the US—which have close relations with the Philippines—had also expressed concern about the incident.
It's another hot, humid Sunday
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By Arlie O. Calalo
July 9, 2023 30
It will be a hot and humid Sunday as the easterlies will continue to prevail, the Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration (Pagasa) said.
Weather specialist Daniel James Villamil said the easterlies, winds coming from the east that pass through the Pacific Ocean and bring warm and humid weather, will prevail in most parts of the country especially in Luzon.
Along with the inter-tropical convergence zone, an imaginary line where the air from the northern and southern hemisphere meet, the weather system will bring overcast skies with scattered rain showers and thunderstorms in Visayas, Caraga, Northern Mindanao, Zamboanga Peninsula, Masbate and Sorsogon.
"We can expect hot, humid weather especially in Luzon areas although isolated downpour and thunderstorms will be likely in the afternoon or at night," Villamil said.
Metro Manila and the rest of the country will have partly cloudy to cloudy skies with isolated rain showers or thunderstorms.
Mixed adjustments in pump prices seen on Tuesday
AT A GLANCE
The colliding factors which influenced oil prices last week had been the niggling forecast of slower global economic growth and inventory drop in the US versus the production cut of Saudi Arabia extending into August as well as the pronouncement of the US Federal Reserve on continued enforcement of interest rate hikes.
Motorists using diesel products will pay more next week while gasoline users can look forward to a price cut, according to the oil companies.
Industry players said diesel prices may rise by P0.55 to P0.85 per liter while RON92 gasoline, which is widely patronized in the Philippines, will likely be down by P0.30 to P0.60 per liter. For RON95 gasoline products though, the calculation is a marginal hike of P0.05 to P0.15 per liter.
For kerosene, which is a commodity generally used in households and as a base for aviation fuel, there is expectation for a moderate increase of P0.35 to P0.65 per liter.
Being the usual grind in the domestic petroleum sector, the oil firms will be adjusting their prices on Tuesday, July 11, to be anchored on the cost swings of the Mean of Platts Singapore (MOPS), the reference pricing being employed by the industry.
As culled from the monitoring report of the Department of Energy (DOE), price adjustments since the start of the year logged net decreases of P3.70 per liter for diesel and P6.00 per liter for kerosene while gasoline products posted aggregate hike of P5.85 per liter.
Pricing seesaw dominated global oil markets last week with prices going down in the initial trading days due to the broader inventory drop reported by the United States, the world’s biggest oil consumer due to lingering concerns of slower global economic growth.
The antithesis to those developments, however, had been last week’s pronouncement of the US Federal Reserve that interest rate hikes would still very much be on its agenda and the announcement of Saudi Arabia on its production cut extending into August.
The colliding factors influencing oil prices essentially pushed international benchmark Brent crude above $78 per barrel as of end-week trading on July 7 from a lower base of $75 per barrel level in the prior week.
Other geopolitical factors monitored in global oil markets had been the month-on-month decline in Venezuela’s oil production as well as the oil tankers of Iran that had been seized by the US Navy in the Gulf of Oman.
Closer to home, industry traders are also closely keeping track of the ‘energy crunch’ predicament of Singapore that had been compounded by the power price cap enforced by its government, as that too, could exert pressure on fuel commodities being traded in the region in the days and weeks ahead.
The world is not the same without you
The mental health pandemic in the Philippines is ongoing and must be addressed with urgency.
AT A GLANCE
- Drink this water of the spring, rest here awhile, we have a long way yet to go and I can’t go without you. —Ursula K. Le Guin
By ALEX AMANSEC
SOMEONE TO LEAN ON An important reminder to anyone that you are not alone (Cottonbro Studio)
I was alone in my room past midnight on Tuesday, June 27, when I called the Philippine National Center for Mental Health. In other words—no longer hiding it under any professional euphemisms—I called the suicide hotline.
This wasn’t the first time I called them. The first time I did was only an attempt, two outgoing calls that were never answered at two in the morning on June 18, 2022. The second time was when I needed someone to talk to on March 23, where I called the hotline at noon and was surprised that someone picked up, a woman whose voice gave away the years in terms of her age, but her tone was tender and promised safety. I broke down as she listened and when I had nothing left to say, she said everything I wanted and needed to hear.
It wasn’t exactly the same reinvigorating experience. The woman who picked up was certainly younger, less experienced. I told her everything from how I was both alone, lonely, in need of someone who would be willing to listen, all the way to implying thoughts of self-harm. I was looking for assurance that everything was going to be okay, but her lack of experience was given away based on her first response to my brokenness.
“It’s just a phase,” she said over the line. “Look on the bright side of things. We need these challenges to make us stronger.”
There’s a lot of things to unpack from what she told me. I still was fortunately in the right mind to recognize that she had good intentions, for sure. But after ending the call earlier than expected, in the dead of the night, I was left to cross the abyss on my own.
Mental health in the Philippines
On June 21, we commemorated the fifth year since the signing of Republic Act 11036, or the Mental Health Act of the Philippines—but is it being implemented properly? Many societal symptoms are showing we still have a long way to go.
When I returned to my condominium in Quezon City the very next midnight, there were police cars and an ambulance parked in front of the neighboring building. A security guard informed me that a student had allegedly jumped from their window just a few minutes earlier. I do not know the student’s name or, scarier, whether he or she is still alive (I’m praying). What is equally serious is how I also cannot be sure whether the student reached out to anyone before succumbing to suicide.
In October 2022, the University of the Philippines Populations Institute (UPPI) released the results of a nationwide survey saying that nearly one in five young Filipinos have considered ending their lives, and six in 10 of those did not reach out to anyone about it. Only one in 10 are aware of any suicide prevention program or service being offered.
There is a grave mental health pandemic ongoing in our country. Besides the stigmatization on the person-to-person level, the budget and allocation of resources toward the very few local mental health facilities have been poorly executed.
In April, after a surprise ocular inspection, Senator Raffy Tulfo called out possible cases of corruption or negligence that manifest in the dismal state of the National Center for Mental Health in Mandaluyong City. Dr. Dinah Nadera, a highly-esteemed psychiatrist in the field of public mental health in the Philippines, even stressed the need to further train healthcare providers in general hospitals on their knowledge and skills when it comes to mental health.
Hope is the thing with feathers
In these times when everyone is tethered to social media platforms that deceive us to think we are more connected to each other, we must remind ourselves that we do not know everything.
I write this passage on the last train to Santolan station. The collective experience of every body swaying in sync to the momentum of the vehicle, every body needing some form of contact besides its two feet on the floor—something to grip, someone to lean on. For if not, the body might fall. I am writing this to remind anyone who reads this that you are not the only passenger. You do not have to go through this alone. And if, by chance, you know anyone who might be losing their balance, I urge you to reach out to them and ask how they are doing.
The systems set in place need to be reviewed, and I write this as an appeal to the Philippine government and healthcare institutions to recognize that the time for action is now. At the same time, with the few days that have passed since I called the suicide hotline, I write this as proof to myself and to anyone else who reads this that there is hope, and it will be okay. You are heard, you are seen, and you are loved. In the words of American novelist Ursula K. Le Guin, “Drink this water of the spring, rest here awhile, we have a long way yet to go and I can’t go without you.”
HANDANG MAKINIG The National Center for Mental Health (NCMH) crisis hotlines can be reached at these numbers for anyone in need of someone to listen (doh.gov.ph)
The National Center for Mental Health (NCMH) crisis hotlines can be reached at 1553 (Luzon-wide landline toll free), 0917899-USAP (8727), 09663514518, and 09086392672. (https://doh.gov.ph/NCMH-Crisis-Hotline)
Saturday, July 8, 2023
Port project on Samal Island ‘destroyed’ corals
DAMAGED REEF The ancillary port constructed to unload heavy equipment for the construction of the Samal Island-Davao City connector bridge, as shown in this photo taken on June 8, is embedded on a living coral reef, according to marine biologist John Lacson. —PHOTO BY MARINE BIOLOGIST JOHN LACSON
By: Germelina Lacorte - @inquirerdotnet
Inquirer Mindanao / 05:02 AM July 08, 2023
DAVAO CITY—A marine biologist has raised the alarm over the destruction of corals in the offloading port constructed for the Samal Island-Davao City connector bridge.
Dr. John Lacson said a video has shown that the metal frames of the ancillary port recently built to offload heavy equipment for the construction of the bridge that will link Davao City and Samal Island actually embedded into the living corals of the reef.
“Although direct construction of the bridge is paused, an ancillary project of [the] DPWH (Department of Public Works and Highways), which is a seaport intended for offloading of heavy equipment, is being built within 25 meters of a reef adjacent to Paradise Reef,” he said.
Lacson the port construction violated the Philippine Fisheries Code which states that it is “unlawful for any person, entity, or corporation to perform activities that damage coral reefs.”
Lacson, a marine biologist with a doctorate on biological science in the University of Texas, said he had regularly visited the area to monitor the health of the reefs but when he first checked on the Paradise Reef on June 3, he noticed the metal structures of the newly constructed port.
Five days later, he decided to have a closer look and saw that the metal frames of the new structure were actually embedded on the corals.
Public Works Secretary Manuel Bonoan, reached by phone on Friday, told the Inquirer he would look into the concern.
“We just have to investigate. Tingnan namin (Let us see),” he said.
He said he was made to understand that “the construction of the Samal bridge project is being closely monitored by a team composed of [officials of the] DPWH, the local government and other stakeholders every step of the way.”
He added: “We just have to find out if this has gone through their scrutiny,” he said.
This developed as the lawyers of the Lucas-Rodriguez family, who owned the Paradise Island Park and Beach Resort and its adjacent Costa Marina resort on the island, petitioned the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) to suspend or cancel the environment compliance certificate (ECC) of the bridge project because of the violations.
In a June 8 letter to Gilbert Gonzales, director of DENR’s Environmental Management Bureau (EMB), the lawyers cited the construction of the port as among the violations. The port was not one of the activities identified in the project’s Environment Impact Assessment (EIA) report, the basis of the ECC issuance, they noted.
“[The construction of the port] was not listed in the preconstruction process nor was it included in the environment management plan,” the letter signed by lawyer Ramon Edison Batacan of the Batacan Montejo Vicencio and Valdez Law Firm read.
The law firm also cited the destruction of the corals, a violation of Section 96 of the Revised Philippine Fisheries Code: “Coral reefs have been damaged as a result of the construction and as the illegal construction continues in haste, there will be more damage. The activity being outside the identified and allowable [activities] under the EIA, its impacts including severe environmental risks and potential for pollution were not properly assessed. Due to the omissions, there are no mitigating measures in place.”
No action
The law firm said their petition was also sent to concerned agencies and officials, among them the Office of the Ombudsman in Mindanao, the Environment Ombudsman Program of the Ombudman’s office in Diliman, Quezon City, to Environment Secretary Maria Antonia Yulo-Loyzaga and Secretary Bonoan, but had not been acted until now.
But Bonoan said it was the first time for him to hear about the lawyers’ petition to the DENR.
Lacson, on the other hand, said he had notified former DENR-Davao Regional Director Bagani Fidel Evasco about the destruction of the corals and the latter had asked him for its exact geographic location so that his office could act on the complaint. Evasco, however, had been replaced by lawyer Mercedes Dumagan, who is currently on leave.
Maria Antonette Andolana, head executive assistant to the DENR-Davao director, said by phone on Friday they would look into the complaint.
When in great difficulty
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By Fr. Roy Cimagala
Chaplain
Center for Industrial Technology and Enterprise (CITE)
Talamban, Cebu City
Email: roycimagala@gmail.com
WHEN we find ourselves in some extraordinary difficulty, we should not hesitate to go to Christ. Let’s beg him for help, but making sure that what should move us to do so is not so much to be rid of the difficulty as to be believe in him as our savior, as our God in whose image and likeness we have been created. In the end, we go to him to be like him, and not just for some self-interest or for some practical purposes.
We are reminded of this truth of our faith in that gospel episode where an official approached Christ begging him to raise the official’s just-recently dead daughter to life again. And when Christ was on his way to the official’s house, a woman suffering from hemorrhage for 12 years, exerted great effort to get near him if only to touch his cloak, convinced that by so doing she would be cured. (cfr. Mt 9,18-26)
In both cases, Christ praised their deep faith in him. We have to remember that it is faith that lets us enter into the spiritual and supernatural world. It brings us to share in God’s wisdom and power. Remember those stirring words of Christ: “If you have faith as a grain of mustard seed, you shall say to this mountain, Remove from there, and it shall remove, and nothing shall be impossible to you.” ((Mt 17,20)
Without faith, in spite of our keenest intelligence, we will miss much of the more important aspects of our life as we would only be restricted to the here and now, the material, practical and the temporal. We would miss the real purpose of our life, which is for us to be like God.
We need to exert effort to have the proper intention whenever we ask some extraordinary favors from God. That’s because very often we are moved to run to God only for some practical motives. We forget that in all our dealings with God, the main and constant reason is to adore him and to express our desire to be like him as he wants us to be.
We should be careful not to let our great difficulties set aside the main reason for asking favors from God. This is actually a big challenge for us, since with our tendency to consider only the here and now, we forget to pursue the real and ultimate purpose of our life.
This, of course, will require a certain discipline on our part. That’s why we need to avail of certain practices of piety that would constantly remind us of the main reason for any petitions we make from God.
This is a big challenge that would require us to be sober and to learn how to be contemplative even while we are in the midst of the ups and downs of our earthly life. We have to broaden our understanding of the character and purpose of our life here on earth, and know the purpose, the causes and the reason for our human predicaments.
We just have to remember what St. Paul once said: “To them that love God, all things work together unto good, to such as, according to his purpose, are called to be saints.” (Rom 8,28) These words of St. Paul should be at the very core of our attitude when we are faced with our difficulties in life.
Frasco continues to enjoy Marcos' trust despite tourism ad mess
President Ferdinand "Bongbong" Marcos Jr. said that Tourism Secretary Christina Frasco continued to enjoy his trust despite the tourism campaign controversy.
President Ferdinand 'Bongbong' Marcos Jr. receives the plaque of appreciation for his late father from the Department of Tourism on June 27, 2023 at the Manila Hotel. (Ali Vicoy)
"Yes absolutely. No question," Marcos said on Friday, July 7, when asked if Frasco still enjoyed his trust despite the issues surrounding the "Love the Philippines" tourism campaign.
The President said he had spoken to Frasco about the matter, and noted that Frasco had already addressed the issue by terminating the contracts that were in question.
He also expressed confidence that Frasco will be able to "fix the problem", and that the new tourism campaign will succeed.
"She has also, since then, put under review all of the other contracts that were in the pipeline," he said.
"Kaya't sa aking palagay (So, I think) she has it under control, she knows what to do, what she has done so far inspires confidence that she will fix the problem and that the campaign of 'Love the Philippines' will be as successful as we hope for it to be," Marcos said.
The Department of Tourism earned flak after DDB Philippines admitted to using foreign stock footage for its content when it launched the tourism promotional campaign video.
The promotional video was shown during the launch of the new tourism slogan "Love the Philippines" on June 27.
Frasco then said that the new tourism slogan was in recognition of the Philippines’ natural assets, its long history, and its rich culture and diversity.
Trailblazing Heart Evangelista is opening doors for Pinoy designers in global fashion
BY MANILA BULLETIN ENTERTAINMENT
AT A GLANCE
It was no less than Heart Evangelista, wearing a jaw-dropping modern terno by Filipino designer Cheetah Rivera. She had been first photographed in Rivera’s white and blue ombré “Santiago” dress exactly a year ago on the streets of Paris.
Heart Evangelista (Images courtesy of Facebook)
In the countdown to the highly anticipated Haute Couture Week, its official Instagram page (@hautecoutureweek) chose a Filipina to grace its teaser to mark D-3, or three days before the start of the global fashion event.
It was no less than Heart Evangelista, wearing a jaw-dropping modern terno by Filipino designer Cheetah Rivera. She had been first photographed in Rivera’s white and blue ombré “Santiago” dress exactly a year ago on the streets of Paris.
This time, it served as the backdrop for a “save the date” of the world’s premier fashion event for Fall/Winter 2023, bringing pride to the Philippines not just for her presence, but for also putting Filipino fashion in the spotlight at the biggest stage of couture and paving the way for the entry of other Filipinos to Paris, Milan and New York Fashion weeks and the international fashion scene as a whole.
The post did not bear her name – it really didn’t have to. Heart has risen to become a global fashion icon. And for the Philippines, she is a global fashion pioneer and a trailblazer, breaking into the scene at a scale no other Filipino ever has.
Heart’s face is familiar the world over from the pages of top-tier magazines, from Elle and Instyle to Bazaar and Vogue. Anna Wintour knows her by name. She has posed for a photo with Michael Kors. And she has shared a giggly hug with Christian Loubutin.
To brands, Heart’s face and poses are currency. With her impeccable personal style, head-turning looks, and eye-catching strut, she gets the front seat in high-profile runway shows, sought after by designers to lend her name to their brand. The luxury list is endless: Chanel, Guerlain, Dior, Yves Saint Laurent, Hermes, Louis Vuitton, Gucci, Balmain, Prada, Kenzo, Giambattista Valli, you name it.
Alongside, she champions Filipino brands – Neric Beltran, Cheetah Rivera, Maison Glarino, and Mark Bumgarner – making their creations known to the world and bringing global attention to Philippine textiles and design.
The fashion world craves more from Heart, and she is just getting started. The next time a fashion photographer’s camera clicks, whether in Milan, Paris, LA, or Singapore, it would likely be Heart, owning style, grace, and elegance in a single frame.