Investment missions cited behind 1,000% hike in OP travel expense

By Samuel P. Medenilla @sam_medenilla

T he bulk or P367 million of the travel cost of OP last year were from the trips of President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. to Singapore, Indonesia, United States of America (USA), Cambodia, Thailand, and Belgium during the first six months of his term.

As everyone knows, 2021 was the height of the pandemic when mobility was restricted, with lockdowns implemented all throughout the country,” the OP said.

hope to elevate our position in the international community through stronger bilateral ties and improved relations with multilateral or international organizations,” it added.

T he Office of the President (OP) issued the statement after state auditors reported its local and over - seas travel expenses rose to P403 million last year from just P36.8 million in 2021.

Continued from A1 trade agreements will also elevate the country’s growth potential to 6.5 to 8 percent from the current 6 percent.

B alisacan noted that without quality jobs, the Philippines will have a difficult time reducing poverty. The aim of the current administration is to bring poverty incidence down to single-digit lev- els by 2028. He added that increasing investments and quality jobs also supports the goal of the Philippines to become a first world economy by 2040. This can be attained if the country consistently posts a GDP growth of 6.5 to 8 percent.

L ast February, Neda expressed its strong support for the Regional

It noted Marcos decided to accept the “huge volume of invitations for international events, conferences, high-level meetings, and state visits,” since it will serve the public’s interest. We reiterate that the Administration, guided by its 8-point socioeconomic agenda, has opportunities to generate more foreign investments in our post-pandemic recovery initiatives,” OP said.

“At the same time, we also

Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (RCEP).

Neda said that based on the 2021 trade data from the International Trade Center, under the RCEP, only 15 agricultural commodity groups corresponding to 33 tariff lines will have lower tariff rates compared to some Asean+1 FTAs.

T his is equivalent to only 1.9 percent of the total 1,718 agricultural lines and only 0.8 percent of the total agricultural imports. Of

T he Office of the Presidential Assistant on Investment and Economic Affairs (OPAIEA) and the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) said Marcos was able to secure US$62.926 billion, which is equivalent to P4.48 trillion, worth of foreign investment commitments from his trips to Japan, Indonesia, Singapore, Thailand, USA, and Belgium.

these 33 tariff lines, 17 are raw materials, 8 are intermediate products, while only 8 are final goods. T he remaining agricultural tariff lines will have equal or higher rates compared to other Asean+1 FTAs, or are excluded from import tariff concessions under the RCEP.

T he Department of Budget and Management (DBM) said it will propose for the travel budget of OP to be raised from its current P893.87 million travel budget to P1.08 billion next year so the President can continue promoting the country as a top investment destination abroad.

T he Philippines is currently exporting a number of products for which concessions were secured (e.g., preserved pineapples, pineapple juice, chocolate) and securing better market access for these products through RCEP opens the possibility to further widen the market base in these countries.

Teves...

Continued from A14

I n order to constitute abandonment of office, it must be total and under such circumstance as clearly to indicate an absolute relinquishment. There must be a complete abandonment of duties of such continuance that the law will infer a relinquishment. Abandonment of duties is a voluntary act; it springs from and is accompanied by deliberation and freedom of choice. There are, therefore, two essential elements of abandonment: first, an intention to abandon and, second, an overt or ‘external’ act by which the intention is carried into effect,” the committee pointed out.

T he Ethics Committee considered the designation of Teves as a terrorist by duly-constituted authorities a grave matter.

Such a designation for a sitting House member reportedly brings disrepute to the institution and its members. It also casts doubt on Congress’s commitment to the welfare of the nation and creates a negative impression, both domestically and internationally, said the committee.

When a Member of the House of Representatives is designated as a terrorist, it poses a significant threat to the integrity and dignity of the institution. It is a serious and unprecedented matter,” the panel explained.

Pursuant to the Constitution, the provisions of the Rules of the House of Representatives, and the Committee Rules of Procedure for the 19th Congress, the Committee finds that the acts of Rep. A. Teves Jr. constitute disorderly behavior and violate Section 141 (a) and (b), Rule XX of the Code of Conduct of the House of Representatives, and such acts are so grave as to merit the most severe form of disciplinary action allowed by the Constitution in order to protect the institutional integrity of the House of Representatives,” the Committee added. See “Teves,” A4 science,” generative AI “is almost predictive in a sense,” per IBM Technology ASEANZK (Asean, Australia and New Zealand, Korea) Principal Technical Sales Leader for Data, AI and Automation Kieran Hagan. It changes the way you build the app now. You don’t have to label the data, and it has changed the supervised learning. So it’s creating a new content based on available data and prompting, which based on the IBM research, it’s 70 percent more efficient than classic deep learning and machine learning,” he explained.

G enerative AI has crucial applications for the Philippines given its potential impact on all industries.

S ome of the classic use cases of generative AI would be around automation, virtual assistance, digitalization of workflows, among other applications, Hagan elaborated.

D igiteer Chief Executive Officer (CEO) and Cofounder Fatima Yambao, on the other hand, noted that this could affect the customer service industry since it has certain tasks that can be enhanced or passed on to the AI, without replacing the people but just need upskilling or reskilling for competence.

A dditionally, it can be of use for the agriculture and transport sectors. Yambao said: “The Philippines is an agricultural country and we haven’t really utilized that. So now we can check up the crops, the yield, even irrigation and fertilization, [through AI drones]. For the traffic that is really a big problem here, with the help of AI, we can actually have maybe solutions for that in the near future.”

Meanwhile, AI can help address the pressing problem of climate change and dealing with natural disaster preparedness, among other environmental issues.

T he Department of Finance reported that climate-related hazards led to P506.1 billion in economic losses and damage in the Philippines over the past 10 years.

“ The World Bank forecasts economic damage to reach up to 7.6 percent of the GDP [gross domestic product] by 2030 and 13.6 percent by 2040 if no action is taken to address climate change in the Philippines,” Komunidad Founder and CEO Felix Ayque cited.

W ith this in mind, he stressed the need for enterprises to take advantage of the AI like what their startup company did to help their customers make better business decisions and implement effective business continuity planning (BCP) strategies that reduce risks of environmental changes.

Market response

WHILE generative AI has just been recently creating a buzz, it has already earned the trust of the business sector.

I n fact, the IBM Institute for Business Value’s global CEO study showed that three-fourths or 75 percent of global CEOs surveyed think that enterprises armed with the most advanced generative AI will have a big competitive edge in the market. About half or 43 percent of them have already implemented generative AI to inform strategic decisions, 36 percent tap it for operational decisions, and 50 percent are incorporating it into their products and services.

H alf of Southest Asian CEOs, including those from the Philippines, pinpoint technology modernization as a top priority for their organization; followed by enhancing productivity and customer experience—both at 48 percent—as their second prime concern among their top challenges.

What’s on IBM in PHL

TO bring AI for real in the country, IBM officially launched during the forum its newest enterprise-ready AI and data platform Watsonx which provides self-service access and everything businesses need— tools, technology, infrastructure and consulting expertise at scale in one place.

T his channel comprises of the studio for new foundation models, generative AI and machine learning (now available); the watsonx.data data store, built on an open lakehouse architecture (now available), and the watsonx.governance toolkit to help allow AI workflows to be built with responsibility, transparency and explainability (coming soon).

I BM was guided by five fundamental properties in developing it to ensure trust: explainability, fairness, robustness, transparency and privacy. Watsonx uses the power of foundational models pretrained on massive amounts of unlabeled data, making it less expensive to prepare, and thereby reducing the cost of scaling AI workloads across cloud and on-premises environments through a single point of entry.

A part from the business process outsourcing companies, the company also wants to partner with smaller firms for this new offering. Industry-wise, Watsonx works for human resourceS, financial technology or fintech, and education.

“AI is here. It can be used for business, but we need to make sure it is responsible AI. It needs to be trusted, explainable. And what’s good is that technologies such as Watsonx allows you now to actually do that. Let’s use AI for the good. It has more real life applications in the Philippines. You have IBM to help, you as we have our ecosystem of partners. So let’s not be afraid of AI. AI is there to augment human intelligence and it belongs to the creator—creators like all of us. And of course, it’s all about trust and transparency, be at the core of any AI strategy for business,” Judan-Jiao said.

Continued from A1

M eanwhile, EVAP said the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) is still preparing its Electric Vehicle Incentive Strategy (EVIS) and the Department of Transportation (DoTr) is keeping its focus on public utility vehicles (PUVs) modernization, with EV as the priority.

“Other government agencies are taking their share by including EVs into their fleets (the Department of Public Works and Highways or DPWH is leading the pack in terms of compliance with this commitment),” EVAP said in a statement on Wednesday.

For its part, the association noted the private sector is “actively investing” in putting up more charging stations in strategic locations nationwide and using the latest innovative EV charging technology.

M any private companies are also taking the initiative to procure EVs for enhancing their own fleets, highlighting their efforts to lower carbon emissions and lower energy dependence on gasoline, EVAP also noted.

A raga, meanwhile, revealed that the establishment of the Philippine Battery Consortium will be launched during the Philippine Electric Vehicle Summit (PEVS) 2023 to be held from October 19 to 21.

It is aimed at addressing the important concerns and issues about battery supplies and costs. Of course, the three-day event will be a bigger venue for networking as well as for plenary and moderated discussions, which everyone would surely find helpful,” Araga said.

Editor: Vittorio V. Vitug

AFP-Nolcom conducts 60 air, 30 surface patrols in line with territorial defense

THE Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) Northern Luzon Command (Nolcom) announced that it has conducted a total of 60 air and 30 surface patrols as part of its territorial defense missions.

In a statement released on Wednesday, Nolcom spokesperson Maj. Al Anthony Pueblas said these patrol missions are from the first quarter of this year up to the present. He added that these milestones were made possible under the leadership of Nolcom chief Lt. Gen. Fernyl Buca.

“From 1st quarter 2023 to present, Nolcom, in conjunction with the Area Task Force-North, an inter-agency coordinating body operating under the umbrella of the National Task Force for the West Philippine Sea, headed by the ComNolcom [Commander Nolcom], has undertaken a total of 60 successful air patrols and 30 surface patrols, ensuring the nation’s territorial security,” Pueblas said.

Aside from this, Nolcom also helped in monitoring the Philippines’ vast waters through its comprehensive maritime surveillance efforts.

“The Command’s Littoral Monitoring Detachment strategically positioned in Bani, Zambales; Pasuquin, Ilocos Norte; Batan and Mavulis both of Batanes monitored a total of 22,474 foreign and domestic vessels in the Nolcom Maritime Areas, playing a crucial role in safeguarding the Philippines’ maritime borders,” Pueblas said.

“Nolcom will continue to launch maritime patrols [MarPat] in collaboration with key government agencies such as the Philippine Coast Guard and the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources to ensure the safety of our fellow Filipinos, specially our fishermen and protect our marine resources for the benefit of current and future generations,” Buca said in the same statement.

MarPat is a Nolcom routine security patrol, which covers three maritime areas; the vast, resource-rich maritime area includes the Bajo De Masinloc (Scarborough Shoal) in the West Philippine Sea, the uncontested Philippine Rise (Benham Rise) and the Batanes Strait.

As this developed, Department of National Defense (DND) Secretary Gilberto C. Teodoro Jr., AFP chief Gen. Romeo Brawner Jr. and Buca paid a visit to three Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement (EDCA) sites located in Camp Melchor F. Dela Cruz, Upi, Gamu, Isabela on August 15.

The EDCA sites inspected include a warehouse, command-and-control fusion center, and the 5th Division Training School of the 5th Infantry Division, Philippine Army.

“The successful completion of this visit reinforces the commitments made by both nations to bolster their defense cooperation and regional stability through the EDCA framework. The visit provided the country’s top defense officials with an invaluable firsthand experience of the progress achieved through collaborative efforts,” Buca said.

He also said EDCA is key to the country’s national interests, as it modernizes its alliance with the US, enhancing our disaster preparedness and response capabilities.

“It strengthens our maritime domain awareness and security while providing basing for our current and future assets. The EDCA sites play a crucial role in facilitating joint operations during natural or man-made emergencies. The urgent need to fast-track the construction of facilities within the EDCA sites is in response to the exigencies of HADR [humanitarian assistance disaster relief] requirements,” Buca noted.

Rex Anthony Naval