Countries rally behind Philippines in maritime...

China to abide with international law as they express concern.

“All states should respect maritime order based on international law, in particular UNCLOS, and recall that 2016 Arbitral Award is final and legally binding. We firmly oppose any action that increase tensions,” the Japanese Embassy in the Philippines said in a statement.

convention.

“Recent actions that disrupted the lawful operations of Philippine vessels off the coast of the Philippines are in violation of international law and contrary to the maintenance of regional peace and stability, and the rules-based international order,” Canada said. Germany also called out China’s “intimidatory action” against the PCG.

UNCLOS. The 2016 Arbitral Award is final and legally binding.”

Combatting lasting COVID-19...

respond to them.

“We call to refrain from any conduct that increase tensions,” German Ambassador to the Philippines Anke Reiffenstuel said. “All states must abide by

Defend Duterte vs ICC probe...

Meanwhile, Canada expressed its “firm and unwavering” support for Manila, urging Beijing to comply with its international obligation as party to the requested the resumption of the investigation, saying the Philippine government had not substantiated its request for deferral.

Last January 26, a pre-trial panel of the ICC authorized the prosecutor to resume the probe.

The Philippines withdrew its membership from the ICC in 2019 but the court ruled that the country remained under its jurisdiction.

The 19 lawmakers filed House Resolution (HR) 780 which called on the chamber to declare the "unequivocal defense" of Duterte.

Arroyo was joined in filing HR 780 by Representatives Carmelo Lazatin Jr., Aurelio Gonzales, Anna York Bondoc-Sagum, Jose Alvarez, Mary Mitzi CajayonUy, Richard Gomez, Wilton Kho, Loreto Amante, Edward Hagedorn, Edwin Olivarez, Eric Martinez, Eduardo Rama Jr., Dale

Corvera, Zaldy Villa, Ma. Rene Ann Lourdes Matibag, Mohamad Khalid Dimaporo, Johnny Pimentel and Marilyn Primicias-Agabas.

HR 780 noted that Duterte's "remarkable accomplishments brought about by his relentless campaign against illegal drugs, insurgency, separatism and terrorism, government corruption, and criminality" made Filipinos' lives "better, more comfortable, and peaceful."

It said that when Duterte assumed office, the country faced a widespread illegal drug problem that posed an "existential threat to the country's social fabric."

The resolution cited Justice Secretary Jesus Crispin Remulla's statement that the ICC's intention to probe Duterte's anti-drug campaign was "insulting" and "totally unacceptable," underscoring the Philippines'

The British Embassy in Manila noted that China's "dangerous acts are in violation of international law." Australia called China's actions toward the Philippines "unsafe and intimidatory." “We continue to call for peace, stability and respect for international law in the South China Sea, a vital international waterway,” Australian Ambassador to the Philippines HK Yu said.  effective and independent judicial system.

Arroyo said she is especially concerned with ensuring that justice is served equally to all because she, too, was a victim of unfair investigation and prosecution under the administration of President Benigno Simeon Aquino 3rd.

All but one of the cases brought against her were ultimately dropped; nevertheless, she remained in hospital custody for the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office plunder case.

The case against the former president and her co-petitioner, Benigno Aguas, was dismissed by the Supreme Court in July 2016 on the grounds that the Sandiganbayan "committed gross abuse of discretion when it refused their separate demurrers to the evidence."  disinformation on COVID-19, there could be ways to inoculate and educate people on how to become more discerning when it comes to identifying facts from myths and/or misleading ideas and information.

During the online seminar, Hickey also underscored the crucial role of journalists in this endeavor of helping empower the public and the communities by providing them with legitimate sources of information that they could use in making critical decisions not only on issues about COVID-19 but also in their daily lives.

“Each of us has a role to play in reducing the impact of problematic content. You as a journalist have a frontline responsibility in educating the public in your communities,” Hickey, an Emmy Awardwinning journalist, said. With his expertise in the analysis of misinformation and having been an advocate of democracy, Hickey has developed groundbreaking tools like Junkipedia, which is designed to centralize the collection of problematic content so that everyone with a stake in solving this problem can benefit from a shared understanding of what threats exist and how to

Specifically, Junkipedia gives not only journalists but also researchers and civil society organizations powerful tools to collect, track, analyze, and respond to mis- and disinformation spreading online.

“You can collect tips quickly and easily via tiplines, tag and classify each item submitted, and analyze narratives and identify trends in the data,” said Hickey, who also led the establishment of the peoplepowered misinformation monitoring program, the Civic Listening Corps. He has also served as the Director of the Algorithmic Transparency Institute, a current project of NCoC, for the past three years. Hickey recognized the urgency to put up these kind of legitimate platforms to safeguard people’s interests.

He said by now, we should be learning from the lessons from COVID-19’s experience and use these as future references to combat the spread of mis/ and disinformation or at least arm the public with safety nets that will allow them to scrutinize information presented to them in different social media.

“The appetite for this stuff does not go away and the people who have incentives to spread it [don't] go away, whether incentives are political, or incentives are financial or those incentives are just to stir the pot and make people crazy which we see that as well. So when we think about efforts to curb this problem, we think less about the problems of proliferation of it and instead, we think about efforts to curb the impact of them and curbing the impact of them comes from inoculating folks, from educating folks, from having a positive interaction with them either through the journalism that we present, or the communication that we have or face-to-face reactions,” he said, when asked about how would he gauge the current efforts to curb mis- and disinformation on matters related to COVID-19.

EMS associate editor Pilar Marrero, for her part, said, “Disinformation narratives are spreading across digital media platforms including inlanguage platforms, monitoring these platforms to identify examples of dangerous dis- and misinformation in a timely and effective manner is critical for us as media reporters so we can challenge them and counter them with facts.” Headquartered in San Francisco, California, EMS works to enhance the  PAGE A5