BusinessMirror March 23, 2024

By Lenie Lectura

POWER industry stakeholders, experts and consumer advocacy groups weighed in on the pros and cons of a $3.3-billion liquefied natural gas (LNG) deal that seeks to achieve the country’s twin goals—energy security and lower power rates.

Meralco PowerGen Corp. (MGen), Aboitiz Power Corp. (AP) and San Miguel Global Power Holdings Corp. (SMGP) forged a deal to establish an integrated LNG facility—the biggest of its kind in the Philippines.

This will be possible via AP and MGen’s investment in SMGP’s 1,200-megawatt (MW) Ilijan power plant and a new 1,320-MW facility that is targeted for commercial operations by yearend. Moreover, all three will acquire Linseed Field Corp.’s LNG import and regasification terminal to store and process LNG for SMGP’s two plants, thus, integrating their operations into the global LNG supply chain.

“For the first time, three leading power companies are working together to secure our country’s energy needs, while transitioning towards cleaner power sources. This represents a major leap forward for our energy future, ensuring not just reliability but also cost-efficient power for many Filipinos.”—Ramon S. Ang

MGen and AP formed a joint venture to make the investment in SMGP happen. They signed an investment agreement to form

Chromite Gas Holdings (CGHI) in which MGen will acquire 60 percent interest, while AP will acquire the balance of 40 percent.

“For the first time, three leading power companies are working together to secure our country's energy needs, while transitioning towards cleaner power sources. This represents a major leap forward for our energy future, ensuring not just reliability but also costefficient power for many Filipinos,” said SMGP Chairman Ramon Ang.

Lower power rates

ABOITIZ Power President Emmanuel Rubio said the synergy would make competitively priced and affordable power accessible to a broader base of Filipino consumers.

There are no estimates yet on how much this deal can bring down electricity rates. Former Energy Undersecretary Atty. Jay Layug,

who now leads an umbrella organization of all renewable energy (RE) associations, said, “The collaboration, hopefully, will result in lower prices given that each party can tap into its respective commercial and logistical advantages.”

Meralco’s rates for the month stood at P11.937 per kWh.

Stable and reliable electricity will also encourage new investments and will help sustain existing ones. As it stands, the Philippines’s electricity generation per capita is the lowest in the Asean.

‘Bridge fuel’

LNG has been pitched as “bridge fuel” to help transition to RE.

The Department of Energy (DOE) had said that the entry of LNG as a new type of fuel into the energy mix increases diversity and security of the country’s energy needs.

It likewise provides the coun-

try with fuel and technology that allows flexibility in supporting the various grid demands from base load to providing reliable mid-merit to peaking power supply. This flexibility also enables the push to further develop intermittent RE technologies, such as solar and wind.

As a transition fuel, Rubio said LNG would complement the variabilities of solar and wind power generation, helping maintain the stability of the aggregate supply and the whole power system.

Gas-to-power generation is considered a natural complement to variable RE, especially if the aim is to maintain grid stability and strengthen energy security. Rubio explained that LNG-powered turbines are able to quickly ramp up or down the quantity of its generated electricity to complement the inherent intermittencies of RE.

Continued on A2

The event was attended by distinguished guests including Bulua, Cagayan de Oro City Chairman Al P. Legaspi Jr. and San Francisco, Agusan del Sur Sangguniang Bayan Member Atty. Jhong Del Prado Cadiz. Top executives of Eternal Crematory welcomed them, including ALC Group Chairman D. Edgard A. Cabangon, EVP & General Man-

Numeriano

Nino Sayco, and Branch Manager Amor S. Leodones.

ager

B. Rodrin, VP for Marketing Jose Antonio V. Rivera, VP for Finance Marvin C. Timbol, VP for Engineering and Development Engr.

FACEBOOK.COM/SMCRAMONANG

China probes PricewaterhouseCoopers’ role in $78-B Evergrande fraud case

By Bloomberg News

CHINESE authorities are examining the role of PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP in China Evergrande Group’s accounting practices after the developer was accused of a $78-billion fraud, ramping up pressure on the global accounting giant that audited a slew of developers before the sector’s meltdown.

The country’s securities regulator this week accused Evergrande’s main onshore subsidiary Hengda Real Estate Group of recognizing sales in advance and massively overstating its revenue in the two years through 2020, prior to Evergrande’s default.

Chinese officials are now looking into PwC as they continue their probes of the developer’s founder Hui Ka Yan, according to people familiar with the matter. They are in contact with some former PwC accountants who handled Evergrande’s audit, one of the people said, asking not to be identified discussing a private matter.

No decision has been made on whether to penalize the auditor, said the people, adding that officials are still investigating other suspected crimes of Hui, who was detained last year. PwC declined to comment.

Beijing’s fresh revelations of Evergrande’s fraud come at a difficult time for PwC, which is dealing with the fallout of scandals in other parts of its global network,

and has cut jobs from the UK to Canada. The firm’s practice in Australia—which is also slashing jobs—came under fire for leaking confidential government tax plans to clients. PwC’s UK arm was hit with a £5.6-million fine last year for failures in its work on Babcock International Group Plc’s books.

“There are serious questions about PwC’s role in the Evergrande fraud, specifically what it knew about the improper revenue recognition,” said Nigel Stevenson, an analyst at accounting research firm GMT Research Ltd. in Hong Kong.

GMT has previously questioned the accuracy of Evergrande’s financial reporting, and alleged in December 2023 that the developer may have never been profitable. In response, Evergrande said the research firm’s recent report was “without basis.”

By inflating revenue, Hengda also overstated a total of 91.9 billion yuan ($12.7 billion) in profit, or more than three-quarters of its reported income between 2019 and 2020, according to the China

Securities Regulatory Commission. That’s about 20 times the inflated profit at Enron Corp.’s 2001 scandal, which ultimately brought down its auditor Arthur Andersen.

“Checking for this type of misstatement is one of the most basic of audit routines,” said Richard Murphy, professor of accounting practice at Sheffield University in the UK. “The risk to PWC’s reputation, not just in China but more broadly, is very real.”

Prior to 2021, Evergrande recorded revenue from contracted sales of many projects before completing and delivering the homes to buyers. Its aggressive revenue-recognition tactics enabled the developer to report lower liabilities and leverage ratios during those years, which facilitated its sales of domestic and international bonds. The world’s most indebted developer began having cash-flow problems in 2021 and spiraled into default, imperiling millions of apartment units that it had pre-sold to buyers but hadn’t completed.

While Chinese regulators laid

global network, was Hengda’s auditor during the period in question. PwC was Evergrande’s auditor for more than a decade until the global accounting firm resigned in January 2023, due to what the developer said were audit-related disagreements.

PwC’s onshore arm, with more than 1,600 certified accountants, reported revenue of 7.9 billion yuan in 2022, making it the top earner among more than 9,000 local rivals, according to official data. Still, that’s a fraction of its global revenue of $50.3 billion during the year.

much of the blame on Evergrande’s Hui, their allegation could create legal trouble for PwC. Evergrande is currently going through liquidation proceedings in Hong Kong, and liquidators that are trying to recover money for the company’s creditors may go after deep-pocketed PwC for compensation, according to several lawyers and insolvency practitioners, who asked not to be identified discussing a sensitive matter.

The regulator’s fine of 4.18 billion yuan on Hengda also means Evergrande will have even less money to pay off its creditors. The Chinese developer was saddled with about $332 billion in liabilities as of June 2023. Chinese authorities have previously come down hard on accounting firms for lapses in their audits of domestic companies.

Last year, the Ministry of Finance slapped a record 212 million yuan fine on Deloitte’s China unit and suspended the operations of its Beijing office for three months for “serious audit deficiencies” in its work on state-owned China Huarong Asset Management Co. between 2014 and 2019. The baddebt manager received a $6.6-billion bailout in 2021 after reporting massive losses.

PricewaterhouseCoopers Zhong Tian LLP, a Shanghai-registered firm that is part of PwC’s

Among the Big Four accounting firms, PwC was one of the most commonly used by Chinese real-estate firms listed in Hong Kong, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. It audited the books of some of the nation’s largest developers, including Country Garden Holdings Co. and Sunac China Holdings Ltd., before they also defaulted on their debt.

Over the past two years, however, PwC has resigned from at least 10 Chinese property companies including Sunac and Shimao Group Holdings Ltd., data compiled by Bloomberg showed.

During the housing boom, most Chinese property developers raked in cash by selling partially built homes and promising to deliver them in a few years. Homebuyers put down deposits and took out mortgages to buy the properties. Their money was supposed to be put in escrow accounts, and released to the developers when construction was completed.

It is unclear if other property developers that were clients of PwC recognized revenue the same way as Evergrande. The Guangzhoubased company said last year that prior to 2021, it had recognized revenue when a property was accepted by a customer, or “deemed to have been accepted by the customer” based on the sales contract, whichever was earlier.

After Evergrande ran into

Major leap forward in energy security

A bridge must have an end

IN the Energy Study conducted by the UP College of Engineering, ICSC (Institute for Climate and Sustainable Cities) Senior Policy Advisor Atty. Pedro Maniego Jr. said fossil gas, solar and wind power plants are the preferred options over the short to medium term to make up for the supply gap resulting from the moratorium on the construction of new coal plants and retirement of new coal plants.

Since Malampaya is projected to run out in several years, LNG terminals are needed to store the imported fossil gas required to operate the existing and new fossil gas power plants.

Maniego said that while the fossil gas has been recognized as the bridge between coal and renewable energy, “a bridge must have an end.”

“The long-term plan should be to phase out fossil fuels entirely with clean energy. There must be a definite date when fossil gas will be totally phased out. EPIRA mandates clean and indigenous power sources. Without a new source of fossil gas after Malampaya, we are simply replacing imported coal with another imported fuel. How could our country ever attain energy independence, self-sufficiency and security?” Maniego said in an e-mail reply.

Stable, reliable power supply

THE DOE said the entry of LNG as a new type of fuel into the energy mix increases diversity and security of the country’s energy needs.

Further, MGen, AP and SMGP stressed that stable and reliable electricity will encourage new in-

cash-flow problems, it decided that it should book revenue after the projects it pre-sold were completed, or occupied by their owners. It reported sharply higher liabilities for 2021 and 2022—reflecting what it owed to those homebuyers —after changing its policies.

“We weren’t aware that Evergrande was doing anything different from the rest of the industry,” said Tyran Kam, head of China property at Fitch Ratings. “Based on the information available to us, Evergrande’s revenue recognition and other accounting policies were generally perceived to be similar to the accounting practices to many of its listed peers,” he added.

Credit-ratings firms, along with other market participants, would have relied on the audited financial statements when analyzing the companies, Kam said.

While many Chinese developers have stated in their annual reports similar revenue-recognition policies, Evergrande may have pushed the limits further.

China Vanke Co., whose auditor is KPMG LLP, said in its 2022 annual report that it recognizes revenue from property sales when three criteria are met. That includes when “the property is accepted by the customer, or deemed as accepted according to the sale and purchase agreement, whichever is earlier.”

PwC is also being investigated by Hong Kong’s Financial Reporting Council in 2021, after it failed to identify Evergrande’s inability to operate as a going concern. The inquiry by the city’s accounting watchdog was on Evergrande’s 2020 annual accounts and 2021 interim report.

“The issue is that the auditing process is fundamentally broken, conflicted, and at times corrupted.” said Tom Kirchmaier, professor at the Centre of Economic Performance at the London School of Economics. “Hence, the problem might be bigger than PwC.”

Eternal Crematory…

Continued from A1

vestments and will help sustain existing ones.

They also pointed out that this unprecedented move would steer the country towards a cleaner, more sustainable future in line with the Marcos administration’s push for more natural gas in the country’s energy mix.

“This is a path-breaking venture,” said MGen Chairman Manuel Pangilinan. “Apart from transforming the energy landscape of the Philippines, this symbolizes a milestone alliance among major players in the energy industry towards a more sustainable future. We are thrilled to have such reliable partners as we lay the foundation for a brighter, greener future.”

Under the Clean Energy Scenario of the Philippine Energy Plan, it was forecasted that 50 percent of gross generation would come from RE sources, while 26 percent will be from LNG by 2040.

The natural gas-to-power facility will also help support and sustain economic growth in the country, as it needs stable and reliable electricity supply. A capacity of 2,500 MW will be critical since, according to the DOE, peak demand is projected to increase annually by 6.6 percent from 2020 to 2040.

In the near to medium term, the national government has set economic growth targets of 6.5-7.5 percent for 2024 and 6.5-8 percent for 2025 to 2028.

The Philippines indeed is emerging as a new frontier LNG market, especially with this mega gas deal. After all the necessary approvals and permits are issued for this power deal, industry stakeholders are hoping that this collaboration among three tycoons stays forever in order to achieve government’s twin goals.

The new facility, located inside Eternal Gardens Cagayan de Oro in Zone 4, Barangay Bulua, covers a total floor area of 80 square meters. It features a stateof-the-art crematory machine capable of processing up to nine bodies within 12 hours of operation. This reflects Eternal Crematory’s commitment to providing efficient and respectful memorial care services.

In his message, EVP and General Manager Numeriano B. Rodrin expressed gratitude to clients for their trust and support. He stated, “This milestone of the Eternal Group would not have been possible without the trust and support of our clients. Maraming salamat sa tiwala na patuloy ninyong ipinagkakaloob sa amin.”

ALC Group Chairman D. Edgard A. Cabangon, in his remarks, highlighted that the addition of cremation services further completes the full circle of memorial care products and services offered by the Eternal Group, which includes memorial properties and memorial chapels. “This further completes the memorial care services that we offer to this region. We promise to continue delivering the quality memorial services that we are known for, from our long 47 years of service.”

Established in 1995 by the late Ambassador Antonio L. Cabangon Chua, Eternal Crematory provides a practical alternative to traditional burial that adheres to the teachings and guidelines of the Catholic faith.

Eternal Crematory is a member of the ALC Group of Companies, which also includes Eternal Gardens, Eternal Chapels, and Eternal Plans Inc.

LCVA DREAMSTIME.COM

Editor: Vittorio V. Vitug

News

BusinessMirror

ERC lowers threshold for open access in Mindanao

By Lenie Lectura

HE Energy Regulatory Commission

T(ERC) has lowered the threshold for open access, allowing consumers in Mindanao with at least 500 kilowatts (kw) of electricity consumption a month to choose their own supplier by March 26, 2024.

In a recent resolution, the ERC said it expanded the coverage of Retail Competition and Open Access (RCOA) pursuant to its mandate under Section 31 of the Electric Power Industry Reform Act (EPIRA) and Rule 12 of its Implementing Rules and Regulations (IRR).

The new resolution will cover end-users with an average monthly peak demand of at least 500 kw for the preceding 12 months on a voluntary basis. This, the ERC added, is consistent with the prevailing threshold being implemented for RCOA in Luzon and Visayas.

To date, approximately 239 end-users in Mindanao can potentially qualify to participate in RCOA with this threshold. In contrast, only 102 end-users in Mindanao

would qualify if the threshold were set at 1MW or higher.

The RCOA framework has evolved since its inception in 2013. This progress in the market, coupled with the forthcoming release of the ERC’s Omnibus Rules for Customer Choice Programs in the Retail Electricity Sector, is anticipated to address various implementation challenges and to ensure a seamless implementation of the consumer’s power of choice in the power sector in Mindanao.

“The Commission views the commencement of RCOA in Mindanao with immense optimism,” said ERC Chairperson Monalisa Dimalanta. “We will continue to support and ensure that customers in Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao will be able to exercise meaningfully their power to choose suppliers as a way to realize reasonable price of electricity.

Over the next few months, the ERC will conduct an aggressive information campaign to capacitate our contestable customers with the ability to effectively transact in the retail market and properly discern the best terms of power supply suited to their needs.”

Bill against scamming that targets financial accounts gains ground

By Butch Fernandez

THE proposed Anti-Financial Account Scamming Act or Afasa has undergone the period of interpellation at the Senate and was successfully defended by Senator Mark Villar, the bill’s principal sponsor.

“With the emergence of new forms of scamming like phishing, vishing, and smishing,” Villar reminded his peers that “our laws must keep up with the dynamic changes of the digital environment.”

The senator said “we are proposing the Afasa to ensure that there will be legislation that is specifically directed against scammers who utilize financial accounts.”

This, as he also highlighted the difference between the Afasa and the existing laws on digital transactions, particularly the Anti-Money Laundering Act of 2001 or Amla.

At the same time, he recalled that during the interpellations, “it was also resolved that the Afasa is complementary to the Amla” and will not replace it.

At the same time, Villar noted that “punishable offenses under the Afasa will now be considered as predicate offenses punishable by the Amla.”

“I concurred that European Law deems money muling activities and money laundering synonymous. However, that is not yet the case for our jurisdiction. Presently, scams must first be established as a form of swindling before invoking the application of the law. This is how the new scams like smishing, vishing, phishing and now quishing are thriving. With the advent of advanced technology, fraudsters can now easily and successfully consummate their nefarious acts, even after an account owner

receives and clicks a seemingly harmless link absent any inducement from the sender,” the senator explained.

“With the Afasa, there is no need to establish that these scams are forms of swindling under the Amla, since the law clearly defines the manner [of] how money muling and social engineering schemes are committed, making them predicate crimes already,” he further emphasized.

Asked if there is truly a need for Afasa despite existing laws on cyber security, the senator explained that Afasa’s central focus is preserving the integrity of financial accounts by preventing their use in fraudulent activities, such as money muling.

The Afasa also grants the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas the “limited authority to examine and investigate individual financial accounts used in the commission of crimes defined under the proposed measure. Further, existing laws on secrecy of bank deposits and data privacy do not apply to financial accounts subject to the investigation of BSP.”

Explaining the need for the authority to be given to the BSP by the Afasa, Villar said, “Our financial institutions, particularly the BSP, will now have the authority and power to act on suspicious transactions without having to undergo the complex process of securing the identity of the involved accounts as prescribed by the bank secrecy laws.”

After the successful interpellations, the Afasa will next undergo the period of amendments in the Senate and will then move forward to further legislative actions.

Once enacted into law, the Afasa will serve as the primary legislation penalizing scammers and providing legislative support to the Philippine financial institutions to combat the proliferation of scammers.

compared to their February billing. However, it warned customers of possible high electricity consumption, “especially since El Niño is here.”

It said the latest climate monitoring of the Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration (PAGASA) shows the ongoing El Niño to likely persist in the summer months.

Saturday, March 23, 2024

‘DBCC must set realistic

By Reine Juvierre Alberto

DEPARTMENT of Finance

(DOF) Secretary Ralph G.

Recto said the Cabinet-level Development Budget and Coordination Committee (DBCC) should come up with a growth target that is “more realistic” not only for this year but for the medium-term.

“If you project a very high GDP, then you’re projecting a very high revenue. If you miss it, your deficit will increase and your debt-to-GDP will also increase, right?” Recto told reporters on the sidelines of the Economic Journalists Association of the Philippines’ (EJAP) Induction of 2024 Officers on Thursday evening.

Late last year, the economic team

narrowed down the GDP growth target range for 2024 to 6.5 percent to 7.5 percent from the previous 6.5 percent to 8 percent.

For 2025 to 2028, the DBCC retained the growth assumptions  of 6.5 percent to 8 percent.

Recto said realistically, the GDP target is at 6 percent, but he said they will try to hit 6.5 percent, adding that aspiring for a 7.5-percent target is “too high.”

“We will adjust the GDP downward, but we will ask the [Bureaus of Internal Revenue and Customs] to do more,” the Finance chief added.

The medium-term outlook, Recto said, should be “more realistic, tempered, but also aspirational.”

Meanwhile, he said a GDP target

It

The

“The lower power rate is a positive development for our customers following slight rate increases in the past two months,” said Fermin Edillon, head of Davao Light Reputation Enhancement Department. “Even with the decreased rate, our customers may still incur high electricity bills if power usage is not well managed. We encourage them to effectively manage their consumption to avoid high electricity bills.”

It is important to note that monthly bills are affected by two factors—rates and consumption, he added.

Power rates as seen in Davao Light’s unbundled monthly bills are divided into four major components: Generation and Transmission, Distribution, Subsidies and

A3

of 8 percent is still always up for review, as the national government is expecting more foreign direct investments to come in.

“Probably we can adjust those figures again upwards,” Recto added.

The DBCC is scheduled to meet on Friday, March 22. The economic team is comprised of the secretaries of the Departments of Budget and Management, and Finance, and the National Economic and Development Authority.

Inflation

RECTO projected the average inflation rate for March to hit 3.9 percent.

Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP)

Governor Eli M. Remolona Jr. also said inflation in March may have been around 3.9 percent, closer to the

higher end of the inflation target set.

(See: https://businessmirror.com. ph/2024/03/21/bsp-inflationcould-have-hit-3-9-in-march/)

When asked if the inflation rate is likely to go beyond 4 percent after March, Recto said that “it is always a possibility.”

“But I think within the year, it’s still gonna be within 2 to 4 percent. So it’s gonna be a bumpy road,” he added.

The Finance chief also said interest rates would be higher for longer because inflation will also be higher for longer.

The BSP raised its policy rates to 450 basis points. Recto projected that in the next two years, rates could be cut by up to 200 basis points at most— still not fully recovered.

DOF chief Recto: Call us out when we’re wrong, but just be fair,

FINANCE Secretary Ralph G. Recto has recognized the work of economic journalists in delivering news that serves as feedback to the government, citing them as a crucial trigger in improving the crafting of policies in the country.

At the Induction Ceremony of the 2024 Economic Journalists Association of the Philippines (Ejap) Officers on Thursday, March 21, Recto had a simple appeal to the press: fairness in their reports.

“Call us out if we are wrong, and on times we have done something good, write about our wins—just the facts, no add-on praises needed,” Recto said.

The Finance chief said that he is a believer in the power and utility of critiques that are based on facts and not on fiction.

This, he said, is because critiques can polish the “rough edges” that may hurt the stakeholders who are impacted by what the government does.

Recto said that the Department of Finance (DOF) is not impervious to what is happening outside and does not ignore the realities on the ground.

“In a nation that must be constantly assured of its economic health, in a world that continuously monitors it, know that cannot be a hermit SOF [Secretary of Finance],” Recto stated.

As a third-generation Recto—his grandfather is statesman senator Claro M. Recto, and his father is noted lawyer Rafael Recto—he shares their belief that public interest is better served by a press that is fair and free and fights, than one that fawns upon and flatters.

As the DOF secretary, Recto said he has three constituencies to serve all starting with the letter M: Malacanang, market, and the masses.

“Pagkataposngisangbuwan,napansin komaykulang,maypang-apatna M pala–media [After one month, I noticed something is lacking, there is a fourth M---the media],” he said.

Recto said he cannot do his part without the help of the media, adding that he relies on the DOF press corps and private individuals to deliver his message to the public.

In closing, Recto congratulated the

Other Charges, and Government Charges and Taxes. Generation and transmission charges are pass-through charges that the distribution utility collects and pays to power suppliers and the transmission operator, respectively. Meanwhile, the distribution charge that goes to Davao Light, and approved by the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) has not increased since 2013.

Since power rates are uncontrollable, he said, “Davao Light customers can still manage their electricity bills by focusing on their consumption.” “They can conserve energy by lessening the number of hours or days used for a particular appliance. Moreover, with hotter days come the frequent and longer use of cooling appliances. Davao Light advises customers to open doors and windows or use electric fans with lower consumption than air conditioners,” he added.

“March is Fire Prevention Month. It is equally important to apply electrical safety measures alongside energy conservation, as it will benefit our family and community,” Edillon said.

News

UP denounces China for harassing its marine scientists near Pag-asa

By Malou Talosig-Bartolome

THE University of the Philippines lashed out at the Chinese Coast Guard for harassing its scientists conducting marine scientific research in the West Philippine Sea.

The Chinese Coast Guard said Thursday it stopped 34 Filipino marine scientists and fisheries experts from conducting joint scientific research from Sandy Cay, a rock formation few kilometers away from Pag-asa Island, the biggest island occupied by the Philippines in the West Philippine Sea (WPS).

“The Philippines is conducting a marine resources survey within its own territory, Pag-asa Island. Civilian scientific research activities to assess the status of the marine resources within the Kalayaan Island Group, which are of limited and temporary scope, do not represent any plausible threat to China or whatever interests

it might have,” Dr. Jay L. Batongbacal, director of the UP Institute for Maritime Affairs and Law of the Sea, told BusinessMirror

China Coast Guard narrative ACCORDING to the CCG spokesperson Gan Yu, the Filipinos “ignored China’s warning and dissuasion and illegally occupied” Sandy Cay (Chinese name: Tiexian Reef) on March 21.

A report from WeChat’s news platform cited “reports” that the Philippine Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources boat BRP Datu Sanday entered Pag-asa Island.

“It [BFAR boat] carried a number of so-called marine biologists who claimed to be from a university in the Philippines [and may also include members of the Philippine political

Bong Go lends more support to indigents in Pandi, Bulacan, bolstering LGU efforts

SEN. Christopher “Bong” Go on Thursday stepped in to provide additional support to workers and community leaders in Pandi, Bulacan, complementing the local government’s initiatives to improve public service delivery especially for the poor and the needy.  Go and his Malasakit Team distributed snacks, food packs, vitamins, masks, shirts, and balls for basketball and volleyball to 1,250 barangay workers, mother leaders, and other indigents at the Barangay Bunsuran 1st Hall. Se -

lect recipients received a bicycle, a mobile phone, shoes, and a watch.

“I will never squander the opportunity you gave me. I will work for the Filipino. I’m not a politician just making promises. I’m not the politician who likes to talk about himself. I will do my work and help others to the best of my ability,” assured Go during his speech. Meanwhile, the local government provided financial assistance to the beneficiaries through the Local Government Support Fund that Go earlier advocated to help the town and its people.

and military circles] to illegally invade the Tiexian Reef…to conduct a so-called illegal ‘joint survey of marine resources,’” the WeChat blogger wrote, quoting a statement from the Chinese Coast Guard.

The CCG ship 5204 and Chinese fishing boats near the area “intercepted” BRP Datu Sanday “in accordance with the law.”

The report also said Chinese Navy Type 054A frigate missile shadowed the fishing boat, prompting the marine scientists to transfer from the BFAR boat to the PCG vessel.

China also deployed a Changhe Z-18 medium-lift transport chopper to the area for “surveillance.”

Based on a satellite photo taken on March 21 at around 5:55pm, a total of 13 Chinese vessels—two were Chinese Coast Guard and 11 were militia fishing vessels—encircled the Sandy Cay.

The WeChat news platform also published videos of the Chinese harassment, apparently taken from one of participants in the Philippine research vessels.

On World Water Day: SMC touts 41-B liters of water saved; 5.5M tons of silt, waste cleared from rivers

ON World Water Day, San Miguel Corporation (SMC) said it logged its highest water savings yet in five years, under its flagship water sustainability program, “Water for All.” It also reported significant progress in its ongoing massive effort to clean up major river systems in Metro Manila and surrounding provinces.

SMC President and CEO Ramon S. Ang said the company’s Group-wide “Water for All” program saved 7.5 billion liters of scarce water in 2023.

This brings SMC’s total water savings throughout the program’s sevenyear run to 41.3 billion liters—equivalent to the monthly consumption of 1.3 million households.

for the bulk of scarce water savings, through its use of a water desalination facility.

Petron’s total water savings for 2023 reached 3.5 billion liters, bringing its seven-year total to 20.8 billion liters. San Miguel Global Power came in at second, with 1.3 billion liters of scarce water saved for the year, bringing its total to 6.1 billion liters. At third was Spirits unit Ginebra San Miguel Inc., which logged nearly 1.2 billion liters of water saved, for a total of 5.9 billion liters since 2017.

As chair of the Senate Committee on Health and Demography, Go pledged support for those facing health issues through the Malasakit Centers initiative, which he started in 2018. This program was institutionalized in 2019 through Republic Act No. 11463, which he principally authored and sponsored. It provides streamlined access to government medical assistance programs. As reported by the DOH, the program has assisted around ten million Filipinos nationwide.

There are 161 Malasakit Centers in operation. In the province, such centers are located at Rogaciano M. Mercado Memorial Hospital in Sta. Maria, the Bulacan Medical Center in Malolos City, Ospital ng Lungsod ng San Jose del Monte in San Jose del Monte City, and Joni Villanueva General Hospital (JVGH) in Bocaue.

Go also supported the establishment of Super Health Centers across the country, bringing government medical services closer to the grassroots. Through the collective efforts of DOH, led by Secretary Teodoro.

Herbosa Jr., fellow lawmakers, and local government units, sufficient funds have been allocated for more than 700 Super Health Centers nationwide including 18 in Bulacan.

Meanwhile, Go also led the inauguration of the Super Health Center in Pandi town, where he also aided mother leaders and local government workers in attendance. In his speech, Mayor Roque highlighted the significant impact of Go’s initiatives on the local healthcare infrastructure.

He emphasized the senator’s comprehensive understanding of the healthcare needs of Filipinos and his relentless efforts to address these. The mayor then highlighted the transformative power of Go’s work in Pandi, stating, “Imagine Pandi, such a small town compared to the entire Philippines. But he has not forgotten to send blessings our way.” Mayor Roque also thanked him for the Super Health Center in Pandi, a milestone in local healthcare that promises comprehensive medical services to the residents and surrounding areas.

Go thanked local officials present, including Congressman Ambrosio Cruz Jr., Vice Governor Alex Castro, Mayor Enrique Roque, Vice Mayor Luisa Sebastian, Board Member Richard Roque, and other key local officials, for their service.

Vice Governor Castro also thanked Go for his significant contributions to the province.

Meanwhile, Go, vice chairperson of the Senate Committee on Finance aims to deliver enhanced public service to the province as he supported the improvement of the Pandi District Hospital.

Ang also reported on the progress of another major water initiative: As of March 21, its river rehabilitation project had removed a total of 5.5 million metric tons of silt and solid waste from 85 kilometers of waterways. These include the Tullahan River, Pasig River, San Juan River, and Bulacan rivers, as well as rivers in Laguna and Navotas.

“Water issues have long been a major priority for us. Our latest internal Group water savings report, together with our ongoing river cleanup initiatives, are a strong affirmation of San Miguel’s commitment when it comes to the protection, preservation, and enhancement of our water resources,” said Ang.

“Our employees have played a critical role in achieving these results. We are grateful to them for fully adopting and taking to heart our water sustainability advocacies, particularly the reduction of our use of scarce water sources, and parallel to that, the rehabilitation of polluted rivers, to also help flood mitigation,” he added.

The company’s internal water savings, according to Ang, comes mostly from increased utilization of nonscarce water sources such as seawater, recycled water, and rainwater.

“In the past couple of years, our businesses have really stepped up when it comes to investing in watersaving measures. From fixing leaks, installing new meters, replacing old pipes; to installing rainwater harvesting facilities, utilizing more efficient water recycling and reuse systems, to investments in advanced technologies such as desalination: Every drop counts, so every little effort of our employees, count,” Ang added.

SMC fuel and oils subsidiary Petron Corporation continued to account

Other subsidiaries including San Miguel Foods, San Miguel Brewery Inc., San Miguel Yamamura Packaging Corp., SMC Infrastructure, Northern Cement Corp., and San Miguel Properties, in no particular order, also contributed to total water savings.

Since its launch in 2017, SMC’s Water for All program has expanded to include newer facilities built in recent years. To date, it monitors the water use of 96 SMC facilities, offices, and installations nationwide.

The year “Water for All” was launched, SMC also announced the discontinuation of its plastic bottled water business.

At the time, Ang noted that while its plastic bottled water business was providing good returns, its discontinuation was part of SMC’s push for greater sustainability, particularly through minimizing plastic wastes that end up on bodies of water.

Three years later, in 2020, SMC began its massive river cleanup program, which started with its P1billion initiative to clean up the Tullahan River. The inititive led to the removal of some 1.1 million tons of waste from an 11-kilometer stretch of that river.

SMC then took on the more difficult challenge of cleaning up the Pasig River starting in 2021, for which it spent another P2 billion.

Last year, the company completed its cleanup of the Pasig River where it removed nearly 1.2 million metric tons of silt and waste.

The project has since moved to Bulacan province, where many low-lying towns are perennially flooded during the rainy season, due in large part to clogged rivers that prevent the flow of floodwaters out to the Manila Bay.  SMC’s Bulacan river cleanup efforts have cleared 2.6 million tons of silt and wastes from the Marilao River, Giuguinto River, and Pamarawan River in the province.

Our

Fellowship of the suffering

TBy Nick Tayag

my sixty-zen’s WORtH

man is an island” in John Donne’s poem? It tells us that every time someone gets cut off from the rest of us, humankind becomes smaller.

Peter Jackson.

As an aside, December of 2023 marked 10 years since the whole world watched “Return of the King,” the last installment of the said trilogy. Probably you’re wondering why I deem this film to be an appropriate aid for reflection for Holy Week.

To me, “Fellowship of the Ring” is one of the few films that have layers and layers of meanings. Each time you view it, new insights and messages bubble up in the mind.

Although I had read the book by J.J. Tolkien during my college years, my mind was so shallow then, turning the pages without deep interest, regarding it as nothing more than an entertaining fantasy adventure story.

However when I saw the movie based on the book in 2001, I had just turned 60. So I had supposedly a more mature cast of mind. I saw the movie initially as an analogy of what was then happening in our world. It was a troubled year, an annus horribilis. Remember the shock we all felt that fateful day of September 11? It set off wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, the aftermath of which still affects us even today.

More than 10 years thereafter, I wish I could say that the world has changed for the better. But the cliché never gets old: the more things change the more they remain the same. We still have “Sarumans” and “Saurons” in our world who embrace the dark powers, driven by greed for absolute power and dominion over others, represented by the “one ring to rule them all.”

When I watched it again five years ago, I was more spiritually mature and I found it rich in Christian elements. There are motifs of light, hope, selfsacrifice, repentance, and redemptive suffering. Frodo, the primary character, is to me a Christ-like figure that carries the heavy burden of fulfilling his destined task and thus save Middle Earth from the dark powers. Frodo was constantly hounded by a totally depraved creature called Gollum who almost succeeded at one point in tempting Frodo to stray from the path. It’s as if Tolkien had in mind Jesus in the wilderness where the demon tried to break him when he was at his weakest point.

Midpoint in the film, we see the wizard Gandalf go down to his death into the dark abyss and then later he re-appears in later scene but glowing in white light this time, which allude to the resurrection, the conquest of death, which is the foundation of our Christian faith.

But this year, I want to invite you to watch it and focus on the theme of fellowship for your reflection. After all, the whole story revolves around Frodo and his other eight companions who together make up the Fellowship of the Ring. In parallel, Jesus had with him 12 followers as he traveled through Galilee to fulfill his destined mission on earth.

I like to reframe the narrative of “Fellowship of the Ring” as a fellowship of suffering and in suffering. The film reminds us that we are all bound up in one another. As someone put it very well, “humankind is a collective project.”

Remember the famous words “no

Archbishop Desmond Tutu of South Africa once said: “We are made for togetherness, we are made for family, for fellowship, to exist in a tender network of interdependence.” But as Mother Teresa pointed out: “The problem with the world is that we draw the circle of our family too small.” Fellowship of suffering means sharing each other’s pain. When one part of humanity is suffering, the rest of us feel it too. This is why we need to stop taking spirit-numbing painkillers that serve to prevent us from feeling the cries of our fellow human beings.

What we need is a spiritual re-wiring that enables us to see one another, in our pain and in our fear, in our sadness and hopelessness and frustrations, and all our dark moments.

My wife who’s in continuous pain because of her arthritic knees is discovering others who have the same health condition, but are enduring it all with equanimity. Indeed, our personal fragility draws us to other elderly people, or at least it should. And recognizing our human fragility and the interconnectedness we share should lead us to develop greater systems of support and care.

In his inspiring book about the power of community “The Amen Effect,” Jewish Rabbi tells us that “our presence when someone is suffering is imbued with a kind of Divinity. Our care and concern, our love, is itself life-affirming.”

We are all part of the mystical body of an all-inclusive Being, who Himself experienced excruciating human suffering and then lifted us up with him.

If we are to remain true to our Christian beliefs, let’s reflect and give life to this tenet of our faith, even if it is the only one we will focus on during the entire season of Lent.

My gentle suggestion is to change our annual Holy Week observance routine this year. Instead of traveling to seven churches and reciting the Stations of the Cross for our “penitencia,” why not visit a sick friend or relative in-person, and sit with those who are carrying a heavy burden, suffering a personal loss, or struggling with pain and sorrow. According to one ascetic in the fourth century, he says that each visit alleviates one-sixtieth of the patient’s pain. (I don’t know about that.)

If we have mobility problems or are bound to our chairs and beds, we can observe fellowship by saying a silent prayer for our fellow sufferers and offering our own drop of personal suffering to become part of humanity’s ocean of pain.

Like Frodo and his companions, let’s all strive to lean on each other, share each other’s pain in a spiritual ring of fellowship to give each other hope even in dark times.

To the dark powers of corruption and greed, let us together utter the thunderous rebuke of Gandalf: “Thou shall not pass.”

In the same way that Holy Week brings us to Resurrection Day on a bright joyful note, the film “Fellowship of the Ring” concludes on a hopeful note, conveyed in the words spoken by Haldir, an Elf-warrior: “The world is indeed full of peril, and in it there are many dark places; but still there is much that is fair, and though in all lands love is now mingled with grief, it grows perhaps the greater.”

Time

New bills to give extensive benefits for elderly, PWDs

By Samuel P. Medenilla

AlbAy 2nd District Representative Jose “Joey” S. Salceda has announced significant advancements in the protection and benefits afforded to senior citizens and persons with disabilities (PWDs) with the approval of three new bills by the Joint Committees on Senior Citizens, Disability Affairs, and Ways and Means.

On Tuesday, the committees unanimously approved the three substitute bills for House Bills No.

10061, 10062, and 10063, aimed at rectifying the “inconsistent application of senior citizens and

PWD discounts.”

He said the proposed legislation ensures that discounts apply even in conjunction with promotional prices, and introduces a parking discount exclusively for senior citizens and PWDs.

Furthermore, the bills provide both vulnerable groups with a 15percent utilities discount for lifeline consumption, an additional 25-percent deduction on labor expenses for PWDs and senior citizens, and free training programs facilitated by the government.

“We have diligently fulfilled our responsibilities within a span of 60 days, from the moment the Speaker instructed us to conduct hearings to the approval of the substitute bills,” Salceda said. During the hearings, several significant milestones were achieved. Starbucks, for instance, announced a generous 40 percent

discount to rectify any past misapplications of standard discounts for SCs. In addition, Grab and Angkas have made notable improvements to enhance access to senior citizens and PWD discounts. Meralco has also taken steps to simplify the discount application process for electric bills.

Salceda further highlighted the collaboration with government agencies such as the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI), Department of Agriculture (DA), and Department of Energy (DOE). As a result, the senior citizen and PWD discount on basic goods has been expanded from P260 to P500 per month. Based on these remarkable developments, the lawmaker estimated that establishments and government agencies’ commitments would yield approximately P112.6 billion in additional benefits for senior citizens and PWDs this year alone.

PLDT and Smart prioritize inclusion and customer experience with new diversity and inclusion policy

IN line with continuous efforts to enhance customer experience and do business responsibly, the Philippines’ largest integrated telecommunications company PLDT Inc. (PLDT) and its wireless subsidiary Smart Communications Inc. (Smart) operationalized their Diversity and Inclusion Policy to include retail operations and customer touchpoints.

PLDT and Smart recently held a training workshop focused on disability sensitivity and neurodiversity for their frontliners.

According to the National Council on Disability Affairs, there are over 1.4 million registered persons with disabilities (PWDs) in the Philippines as of March 11, 2024. Alongside efforts to promote the social and economic inclusion of people with disabilities, advocates are raising awareness about neurodiversity. Neurodiversity recognizes the variations in how people’s brains function and includes conditions such as dyslexia, au-

tism, and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). To keep abreast of these areas and understand relevant applications to their customer interactions and frontline operations, PLDT and Smart tapped the expertise of disability-led accessibility solutions provider TERPCAP, which conducted an interactive workshop among their retail sales, customer care, and asset protection personnel nationwide.

The workshop tackled fundamentals of disability inclusion and neurodiversity and anchored on real-life PLDT and Smart store scenarios to cover methods of effective communications and customer care for persons with disabilities and neurodiverse conditions.

“We recognize that navigating the world of disability often comes with unique obstacles, whether it’s facing physical barriers or encountering misconceptions and stigma. With workshops like this, we not only equip ourselves with necessary knowledge and skills to better

serve customers with disabilities, but we also cultivate a culture of compassion and respect within our retail spaces,” said PLDT and Smart Vice President and Department Head for Retail Store Operations and Transformation Eden Techico. Complementing disability inclusion trainings and standardized guidelines for their personnel, PLDT and Smart are ensuring that their retail store design and operations are in accordance with the principles of Batas Pambansa Bilang 344 or the Accessibility Law. Among various considerations, their store equipment and furniture sets follow ergonomic design principles to promote accessibility and accommodate customers with disabilities.

“We aim to continuously learn and pursue improvements to make our store design, retail processes, and frontline communications more inclusive and more attuned to serving our customers and individuals of all abilities,” said PLDT and Smart First Vice President and Head of Sales and Development John Palanca.

PLDT and Smart adopt a business-led and institutionalized approach towards ensuring inclusive and ethical engagements with persons with disabilities, in line with their Human Rights and Diversity and Inclusion Policies. These policies ensure alignment of operations with the principles of the United Nations Convention for the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, as well as uphold zero tolerance of any kind of abuse, discrimination, and prejudice, among others.

“Adopting a human rights-based approach and making our services inclusive contribute to our commitment towards narrowing the digital divide, ensuring that all our customers, including persons with disabilities, get quality access to technology that could break social barriers and improve their lives. All these are part of our continuing focus on sustainability and doing business responsibly,” said PLDT and Smart Chief Sustainability Officer Melissa Vergel de Dios.

80 years after D-Day, a World War II veteran gets married near the beaches where US troops landed

BSwerlin kissed and held hands like high school sweethearts as they discussed their upcoming wedding in France, a country the World War II veteran first visited as a 20-year-old US Army Air Forces corporal shortly after D-Day.

Terens, a gregarious and energetic 100-year-old, will be honored in June by the French as part of the 80th anniversary celebration of their country’s liberation from the Nazis. Then he plans to marry the sprightly 96-year-old Swerlin in a town near the beaches where US troops landed.

“I love this girl—she is quite special,” said Terens, who has been dating Swerlin since 2021. To demonstrate their fondness for dancing, they had Siri play “Uptown Funk” by Mark Ronson and Bruno Mars and then jumped, twisted and gyrated like teens at homecoming.

“He’s an amazing guy, amazing,” Swerlin said. “He loves me so much and he says it.”

“And my god, he’s the greatest kisser,” she said.

The couple, who are each widowed, grew up in New York City: she in Brooklyn, he in the Bronx. They laugh at how differently they experienced World War II. She was in high school and dated soldiers who gave her war souvenirs like dog tags, knives and even a gun, trying to impress.

Terens enlisted in 1942 and shipped to Great Britain the following year, attached to a four-pilot P-47 Thunderbolt fighter squadron as their radio repair technician. Terens said his original pi-

lots all died in the war.

“I loved all those guys. Young men. The average age was 26,” he said.

On D-Day—June 6, 1944—Terens helped repair planes returning from France so they could rejoin the battle. He saidhalfhiscompany’spilotsdiedthatday. Terens went to France 12 days later, helping transport freshly captured Germans and just-freed American POWs back to England. To him, the Germans seemed happy because they would survive the war. The Americans, however, had been brutalized by their Nazi captors over months and even years.

“They were in a stupor,” he said. He then went on a secret mission—even he didn’t know his destination. His planes hopscotched North Africa before eventually landing in Tehran. There, he survived a robbery that left him naked in the desert and fearing death until an American military police patrol happened by.

He learned the details of his covert mission when he was deposited at a Soviet airfield in Ukraine. As part of a new strategy, American bombers would fly from Britain to attack Axis targets in Eastern Europe. They didn’t have enough fuel to return so they would fly to the USSR. Terens’ job was to get the crews fed and the injured treated before they flew their refueled planes home.

Terens soon contracted dysentery, which almost killed him. In another close call, a British barkeep refused to serve him past the mandatory closing time despite his pleadings for just one more drink. Moments after he was kicked out, a German rocket destroyed the pub.

Following the Nazi surrender in May 1945, Terens again helped transport freed Allied prisoners to England before

he shipped back to the US a month later. He married his wife Thelma in 1948 and they had two daughters and a son. He became a US vice president for a British conglomerate. They moved from New York to Florida in 2006 after Thelma retired as a French teacher; she died in 2018 after 70 years of marriage. He has eight grandchildren and 10 greatgrandchildren.

Swerlin married at 21 and was a full-time mom to two girls and a boy before being widowed in her 40s. Her second husband died after 18 years of marriage. She then lived with Sol Katz for 25 years before his death in 2019. She has seven grandchildren and seven great-grandchildren.

It was Katz’s daughter, Joanne Schosheim, who introduced her to Terens in 2021. She met Terens when her children attended camp with his grandchildren years ago and remained friends. She and a friend thought the two might hit it off, so invited them to lunch.

“She gave my dad such joy,” Schosheim said of Swerlin. “I didn’t want her to be lonely.”

But after Thelma’s death, Terens wasn’t interested in other women and barely noticed Swerlin. “I didn’t even look at her. I didn’t even talk to her,” he said. “I looked at him. He looked at me,” Swerlin said, but “it was like nothing.”

Even so, Terens’ buddy Stanley Eisenberg took them to dinner the next night. Eisenberg wanted to see who his friend had dismissed. It was love at second sight.

“I had never seen him lit up like that,” Eisenberg said. Terens couldn’t talk or eat, and that’s

not like him.

“I said, ‘You’re in love,’” Eisenberg said. “He said, ‘I don’t know. I’ve never had these feelings before.’” After that date, Swerlin said, Terens “didn’t give me a chance” to turn him down. At 94, she also was in love.

“He was introducing me to the whole world, ‘I want you to meet my girl, my sweetheart,’ and I didn’t even know him more than two days,” she said, laughing. “Being in love is not just for the young. We get butterflies just like everybody else.” Terens proposed a few months ago, kneeling to give Swerlin a ring. “She got hysterical” with delight, he said. “I thought I’d have to help him up, but he’s so macho,” she said. The couple and their families will head to Paris in late May, where Terens and a handful of surviving World War II veterans will be honored. Of the 16 million American WWII veterans, only 120,000 remain, the government says. It will be Terens’ fourth D-Day celebration in France. He received a medal from President Emmanuel Macron five years ago. The families then will travel to the town of Carentan-les-Marais, where the couple plans to be married June 8 by Mayor Jean-Pierre Lhonneur in a chapel built in the 1600s. Lhonneur said because of the American sacrifice on D-Day, more US flags fly in the area than French.

“Normandy is the 51st state,” he said. Lhonneur explained legally he is only allowed to marry town residents, but he thinks the local prosecutor will let him make an exception.

“It will be a pleasure for us,” the mayor said. AP writer John Leicester in Le Pecq, France, contributed to this report.

Congress OKs learning recovery, early childhood-care measures

THE House of Representatives has approved several bills, including measures centered on the creation of an academic-recovery program and early childhood care.

Congress voted 240-0-0 to approve House Bill (HB) 8210, or the proposed “Academic Recovery and Accessible Learning (ARAL) Program Act.”

Rep. Roman Romulo of Pasig City who chairs the House Committee on Basic Education and Culture and author of the bill said the ARAL Program aims to plug the gap between the current and the expected learning competencies among students.

“This program shall strive to ensure that the learners attain the most essential learning competencies covering the subjects of reading, mathematics, and sciences through the tutors who shall conduct the lessons in the program,” Romulo said. “ARAL” will cover the most

essential learning competencies (MELCs) under Language and Mathematics for Grades 1 to 10, and Science for Grades 3 to 10.

The planned program shall cover public-school learners who failed in the examinations and tests assessed and evaluated by the teachers; received grades that are marginally above the minimum level of mastery required in the attainment of the MELCs; and returned or are returning after a furlough.

It would hire tutors from any of the following: 1) Students of teacher-education institutions;

2) The Department of Labor and Employment’s government internship program; 3) Students in higher and technical-vocational educational institutions taking

up the National Training Services under the National Service Training Program; 4) Volunteers from nongovernment organizations or civil society organizations; and 5) Individual volunteers.

Meanwhile, teachers and parateachers participating as tutors under the program shall be compensated for their services.

Tutorial sessions can be held after school hours, on weekends, during the school year except on the day of worship following the beliefs or religion of the learner, or during semestral breaks.

The tutorial sessions shall be delivered either through face-toface tutorials, online tutorials, or blended learning. Tutors will be provided with the appropriate training and seminars, focusing on innovative instructional techniques, interpersonal skills, social-emotional learning, and cultural competency before they participate in “ARAL.”

Early childhood care

THE chamber also overwhelmingly approved on final reading HB 10142, or the proposed “Early Childhood Care and Development [EECD] System Act,” with 242 af -

firmative votes.

The bill aims to eliminate infant and child death rates by ensuring adequate health and nutrition programs accessibility to young children and their parents.

It also aims to facilitate a smooth transition from homes to classroom settings and ensure that young children are adequately prepared for the formal learning system that begins at kindergarten.

The ECCD system shall have the following components: a) ECCD curriculum focused on the child’s holistic development; b) Parent education and involvement; c) Integrated nutrition and health program; d) Human resource-development program; e) Management, monitoring and evaluation; and f) The child-find system for the early identification, screening, monitoring and evaluation of children below 5 years of age, in relation to the delivery of ECCD programs and services.

The ECCD system shall apply to all provinces, cities, municipalities, and barangays to achieve universal coverage for all children less than 5 years old. Filane Mikee Cervantes/PNA

Instituto Cervantes features grammarian who helped preserve Filipino vernacular languages

TAGALOG had its first grammar book published before English did. The linguistic milestone can be mainly credited to the Spaniard known as “Nebrija,” who played a pivotal role in that development.

Last March 12, Instituto Cervantes unveiled at its Intramuros branch the exhibition “ Nebrija en Filipinas ,” dedicated to celebrating the cultural contributions of Spanish grammarian Elio Antonio de Nebrija (1444-1522) whose impactful legacy extends to languages like Tagalog and Cebuano.

Nebrija en Filipinas, tailored for Filipino audiences, is an adaptation of the Nebrija expo organized by the National Library of Spain in 2022 which marked the 500th anniversary of the grammarian’s passing. Through informative panels and displays of books, it highlights Nebrija’s cultural contributions and contextualized them within the publication of the first grammars of the Philippine vernacular languages. Such linguistic endeavors were directly shaped by the author’s teachings.

Nebrija was a highly reputed scholar during the Renaissance period in Europe. His book “ Introductiones Latinae ” which is a groundbreaking manual for teaching Latin not only earned him recognition in Spain, but also garnered global fame. He also

wrote bilingual dictionaries in LatinSpanish and a “Gramática de la lengua castellana ” published in 1492, which is recognized as the first grammar of modern European languages. It became the model for Spanish friars who attempted analyzing the grammars of the new world, both in America and the Philippines. The missionaries, who learned Latin from Nebrija’s methods, applied the model, with its theoretical considerations and bilingual translations, in their description of these languages.

As a result, Tagalog saw its first grammar book published in 1610 with Francisco Blancas de San José’s “Arte y reglas de la lengua tagala .” It was followed by similar initiatives with other vernacular languages—among them the “Arte de la lengua iloca ,” composed by the Augustinian Francisco López (1627), and the “Arte de la lengua bisaya de la provincia de Leyte ” by the Jesuit Domingo Ezguerra (1663).

Proud, intelligent, and audacious, Nebrija was a stalwart fighter for pure Latin and always wanted to go down in posterity with the nickname “Grammaticus ” or grammarian.

When he presented a preview of what would later become his “Grammar of the Castilian Language to Queen Isabel la Católica,” the sovereign was initially surprised, unable to grasp the utility of a treatise teaching the rules of a language acquired naturally. However, Nebrija successfully persuaded her that languages benefit from both descriptive and normative grammars to prevent them from running amok. The paradoxes of fate have made his Castilian grammar his most renowned work today. Nevertheless, Nebrija deserves to be remembered for many other reasons, according to the “Instituto.”

For Nebrija, the revival of Latin was an incentive for other scholarly pursuits. The voyages of the discover -

Magsaysay’s plane crash remembered in book launch

THE University of Santo Tomas’ (UST) Miguel de Benavides Library, in collaboration with the late journalist Nestor Mata’s family, launched the new edition of the book One Came Back: The Magsaysay Tragedy, which was co-authored by Mata and Vicente Villafranca.

The event on March 18 at the UST Library Conference Hall commemorated the 67th anniversary of the historical plane crash that tragically claimed the life of former Philippine president Ra -

mon Magsaysay. The incident happened 67 years ago when the C-47 army plane Mt. Pinatubo, personally christened by Magsaysay as a tribute to the once-inactive volcano in his home province of Zambales, crashed into Mt. Manunggal in the province of Cebu. The devastation left an indelible mark on the country’s history.

Designated as the official presidential plane, Mt. Pinatubo was a refurbished twin-engine C-47, under the command of Major Florencio Pobre who led a crew of

five officers from the Philippine Air Force. The plane, with less than 100 hours of flights logged in, carried the nation’s former leader and his entourage.

Magsaysay visited Cebu City on March 16, 1957 for speaking engagements. Despite ending his itinerary late in the day, he declined invitations to stay overnight, citing an early meeting in Malacañang the next day. The airport check-in witnessed a moment of tension as Magsaysay, who was listed as Number 13 on the manifest, refused the

By Roderick L. Abad

AFTER 57 years, the Philippines will finally observe the International Children’s Book Day (ICBD) on April 2 which will mark a significant milestone in promoting kids’ literature and literacy in the country.

Since 1967, the International Board on Books for Young People (IBBY) has been leading this international event meant to inspire a love of reading among the youth. The occasion is in line with its mission of fostering global understanding via children’s books, upholding the rights of young readers, and championing the accessibility to high-quality literary pieces for them worldwide.

The ICBD is marked on or around the second day of April annually—the birth anniversary of Hans Christian Andersen who is the Danish author of famous fairy tales such as The Emperor’s New Clothes, The Little Mermaid, The Ugly Duckling, Thumbelina, and many more.

“It’s only fitting that [the ICBD] is also celebrated in his honor. It is through his imaginative spirit that the world was introduced to a treasury of fairy tales beloved by children everywhere,” IBBYPhilippines’ (IBBY-PH) Kim Carl Laurente said during the kickoff event of the first ICBD celebration in the country last March 15 in Quezon City.

“He taught us, through his popular [works], that finding magic in ordinary can only be possible through imagination.”

This year’s theme: “Cross the seas on the wings of your imagination,” centers on “imagination,” which is among the 18 national sections of the IBBY.

ers aroused his curiosity, which led to a fascination with cosmography and a desire to learn about developments from across the Atlantic. In these and other scholarly ventures, he revealed himself as a full-fledged humanist.

Even after his death, Nebrija’s fame did not fade. His grammars and lexicons were not only printed in Spain, but also gained recognition in France, Italy, Germany, and the Netherlands. The Latin manual he had written for his students in Salamanca attained exclusive authorization for teaching the discipline—a decree made by King Philip III in 1598. Nebrija’s Latin grammar manual continued to be esteemed, annotated, and adapted based on location and circumstances until the 19th Century.

The exhibit, which will run until June 12, 2024, is organized by Instituto Cervantes in collaboration with Fundación Antonio Nebrija (Madrid), the Embassy of Spain and AECID, Biblioteca Nacional de España, and the University of Santo Tomas (UST). It is an adaptation of the original exhibit “ Nebrija ,” curated by Dr. Teresa Jiménez Calvente, with addition of panels focused on the Philippines composed by University of the Philippines-Diliman’s Marlon James Sales.

The exhibit will have another leg from August to October in UST’s Miguel Benavides Library.

“When we get lost in the pages of a book we love to read, we are fueled by our imagination. In these stories, we explore faraway lands and create different characters—thanks to our creativity and boundless imagination,” Laurente opined.

With these programs, he noted that the IBBY-PH aims to achieve the following: Promote reading literacy and foster the love for reading among local communities; encourage educational and other institutions to celebrate the ICBD nationwide; recognize Filipino publishers, authors and illustrators who have significantly contributed to the growth of children and young adults’ literature in the country; and develop volunteerism by conducting volunteer tribes and organizing a wide range of activities for the benefit of the children in the communities.

The line up of activities includes interactive storytelling and readaloud sessions, book sharing, distribution of books and posters, and awarding of the first-ever “Severino Reyes Medal.”

Recognizing local talents A HIGHLIGHT of ICBD, the Severino Reyes Medal is an award hon -

offer by the Palace’s technical assistant Luis Esmero to take his place. Inside the aircraft, the absence of air conditioning that was removed by Magsaysay to avoid criticism, was noticed by Mata who was a Philippines Herald reporter and co-author of the book.

The plane took off at 1:15 a.m. on March 17, and the initially smooth flight turned horrifying with a sudden, jolting fall described by the author as “a thousand lights blinking…at the same time.”

oring outstanding achievements of different Filipino authors and illustrators—the unsung heroes of local children’s literature.

Considered as the “Father of Filipino Drama” and the “Father of Zarzuela ,” Reyes was a beloved director and playwright who brought a body of work that elevated the Tagalog zarzuela into a highly popular art form in the Philippines during the turn of the century. He also brought to life a familiar character based on a Filipina grandmother figure under his pen name “ Lola Basyang ,” who lovingly read timeless stories to her grandchildren.

“[The stories are filled with hope and optimism, while exhibiting] the very ‘Pinoy’ values of love for family, and respect for elders,” Laurente said of the literary pieces penned by Reyes, which have been played out and replayed on countless rich dramas, television shows and even on the silver screen. “Lola Basyang’s stories have proven to be timeless and enduring, and they appeal to different generations.”

In recognition of his contribution to Pinoy children’s literature, the award named after him will distinguish today’s most outstanding Filipinos who have published a picture book, a storybook, and a young-adult book over the past decade.

“Establishing a children’s book award by librarians stems from our belief in the crucial role of reading for learning, emphasizing the early love for reading as vital for lifelong education. Librarians, as stewards of knowledge and literacy advocates, significantly influence young readers’ literary experiences,” noted IBBY-PH President Kristine Mandigma.

According to Rio Lim of the IBBY-PH Secretariat, they have received almost 200 entries for the inaugural award. Interestingly, she noted that apart from big national publishers, they also obtained submissions from regional publishing companies based in Iloilo and other parts of Mindanao—an indication that the country’s publication industry is still alive and kicking amid the rise of digitalization.

As the nation will mark the ICBD for the first time, Vibal Foundation Programs director Jed Mariñas enjoined educators, librarians, authors, illustrators, publishers, parents, children, and book lovers in general to participate in this momentous event to build a strong literary community in the Philippines.

“Let us reaffirm our [commitments to nurturing a love for learning, promoting literacy, and to providing children with the tools they need in becoming] lifelong learners and compassionate global citizens,” Mariñas said. “I invite you all to join us in the celebration of creativity, [plus the wonder of] the transformative power of literature. Together, let us ignite the spark of imagination in the hearts of our children and pave the way for a brighter and more enlightened future for all.”

EvEr since my first hike to Mt. Pinatubo’s crater lake some years back, I’ve been enamored with the mountains. I did some more hikes around the Philippines and a few places in Asia. When I got the opportunity to visit Switzerland, I carefully planned the day hikes I wanted to do in one of the country’s most popular destination, the Jungfrau region.

panoramic views, simply put, were stunning.

Eiger Trail

Ano T her day hike on my list was the e iger trail. This starts from e igergletscher Station to Alipglen Station. I took the cable car from Grindelwald to e igergletscher. The views from the start of the ride to my stop were spectacular (a recurring theme in Switzerland). I saw the mountain peaks wrapped in clouds and the town below. Most of the people taking this route were on their way to the Top of e urope. My agenda was different as I made my way to the hiking trail.

have the luxury of time, so I remained on the panorama trail.

The trail was a series of serpentine, rocky paths with sweeping vistas. The views of the mountains, rock formations, and the lake made me stop and stare to marvel at nature’s wonders. The inclines were manageable even for children and fit seniors. It was a beautiful day to go hiking, the skies were clear, and the autumn breeze kept me cool throughout. The climax of the hike was the top of a rock formation reaching out to the sky. The

It was cloudy at the start of my hike so I decided to let the clouds recede so I could see the trail in front of me. As soon as the conditions were ideal, I was on my way. The rocky path zigzagged its way along the side of the mountain. o ne of the highlights of this adventure is seeing the e iger n orth Face. The latter is a challenge that some climbers take on, but I neither have the expertise nor experience to scale it. I settled for viewing it from below and thinking how miniscule we all are in the face of nature. After soaking in the views, I was on my way again. I didn’t run out of picturesque vistas as every turn provided a different angle.

As I approached Alpiglen, the trail increased in difficulty. The inclines were steeper, and the precipitous cliffs made me think twice about rushing through some parts of the trail. The last leg of the hike was the hardest. It was a steep descent that tested (and strained) my leg muscles. I was elated and relieved to have reached the station. I took the cable car back to Grindelwald after a tiring but satisfying day.

Grütschalp, Mürren, and Gimmelwald

The jump-off point for this hike is Lauterbrunnen. Much like the previous hikes on this list, it’s convenient to get to the trail because all I had to do was take the cable car up to Grütschalp. The first leg of the trip was the trail from Grütschalp to Mürren. At this point, I was already used to

Living the Cebu ‘lyf’ style

By Benjamin Locsin Layug

The global phenomenon called coliving, a new way for people to live in cities, focused on community and convenience, has touched down in Cebu City with the opening, last January 16 of this year, of lyf (stylized as lowercase) in Cebu City, the first of its kind in the Visayas and Mindanao regions. It is situated in the heart of the city’s action at Tower 3, in the vibrant Baseline Center, Cebu’s latest innovative, mixed-use development.

Located 700 meters from the iconic Fuente Osmeña Circle, it offers convenient access to a wide range of restaurants, shopping centers, cafes, bars, spas, boutique shops, hospitals, universities and other urban attractions, allowing guests to fully immerse themselves in the pulse of the city. For three days, media guests had the opportunity to experience the accommodations, amenities, and facilities of this multifaceted development. Upon arrival, our AOB (Ambassador of Buzz) Ms.

Kaylae Tayona provided us a walk-through on how lyf Cebu City is set to redefine the way we live, work and play. She was ably assisted by Mary e unice “ e una” Lodripas, The Ascott Limited Philippines Director of Communications, April Canlas (Sales e xecutive) and e ddrick Nucum (PR e xecutive).

Managed by the Singaporean group

The Ascott Limited (wholly owned by CapitaLand Investment), lyf (which means “live your freedom”) is a globally present brand specializing in long stay and co-living, with 26 properties in 11 countries across Asia, e urope, and Australia. Their vision is to open, by 2030, 150 lyf properties worldwide. lyf Cebu City is the second lyf property in the Philippines, following the 207-room lyf Malate, in Manila, which opened last June 2023. The Cebu branch is ably managed by lyf Champion (meaning General Manager) Rey Vergel “Rgel” Mulat. The establishment aims to cater to dynamic living with its corporate, lifestyle, and commercial spaces. The unparalleled

co-living concept integral to lyf is best witnessed through its different room types designed for dynamic travelers who are on the move and values the social aspect of tourism. Guests can choose from the property’s 159 rooms based on their desired level of privacy and shared spaces - One of a Kind (Studio), Side by Side (Twin Room), and All Together (Two-Bedroom or Four-Bedroom). A common theme among these rooms is their focus on fostering a sense of community through shared communal spaces, thus promoting collaborative interactions among guests.

The All Together Four Bedroom rooms feature a common toilet and kitchen area, while the All Together Two Bedroom offers exclusive toilets for each room. All have distinct interiors, smart storage solutions (in lieu of closets), and curtain dividers which merge versatility and privacy. You will enjoy your stay while being part of a community within the property. Security is ensured with 24-hour surveil -

the stunning mountainous landscapes of Switzerland, but despite this I was still enthralled with the views of the snow-capped mountains

lance, CCTV monitoring, and electronic key card access.

The One of a Kind Room, with its view of the Cebu City skyline and the sea, I stayed in (also available in Twin configuration), like all units at the property, was equipped with split-type air-conditioning, a 42-inch flat-screen TV, a safety deposit box, kettle, bed linen, towels, a work desk, mini fridge with free WiFi. The hotel strives to be eco-friendly. Aside from a hair dryer, rainshower head, bidet, towels and toiletries, the private en-suite bathroom was provided with dispensers of botanical, carbon neutral Ideology (with Australian kakadu plum and kangaroo apple extract) hand wash, shower gel and conditioner. Instead of bottled water, every room has a pitcher which can be filled from a water dispenser at the service pantry in each floor.

All the rooms at lyf Cebu City, designed and decorated with the brand’s signature values of curiosity, togetherness, authenticity, creation and freedom, are lively decorated with colors that serve, not just as a visual treat, but also divide, in a fun way, the room and its functions, speaking to a guest who likes to live and think out of the box. Knowing that a sense

and the golden colors of autumn that served as the backdrop of my walk/ hike. As hiking season was about to come to an end, few people were on

of self is valuable in order to contribute to the community, the need for individual space wasn’t compromised either.

The hotel also took it up a notch with its super cool social spaces. Our experience at lyf Cebu City was further elevated by its spectrum of vibrant and unique, curated communal spaces that cater to different aspects of communal living yet contributing to a relaxed stay. e ach amenity, uniquely named to underscore freshness and encourage engagement, has a different vibe. Adapting to the social facet of traveling and indoor stays, amenities are given their own distinct character. Say h i, where around the clock guidance is available, serves as the reception and check-in area.

Say h i’s brightly-colored lobby, as well as the ground floor entrance lobby, is decorated with the eco-friendly (using recycled soft drink bottles, plastic tie wire and flexible electrical tubing) artwork, inspired by the marine life of Cebu, by Filipino visual artist Leeroy New. The building exterior also has one of the biggest outdoor murals in the country, inspired by Cebu’s close ties to the ocean. Painted by Cebuano artist Ivan Canencia and his team, it features a thresher shark, that

the trail. This was a bonus for me as I could avoid the crowds and soak in the views in peace and quiet. I arrived in Mürren without noticing it. It was a bustling town with plenty of accommodations, restaurants, and cafes. I followed a group of people that were making their way down to Gimmelwald. The paved trail descended gradually, making it an easy walk for visitors. I’ve noticed that in Switzerland, whether you’re challenging yourself or not, you’ll still get the reward of spectacular mountain views. Before I knew it (after hundreds of photos), I was already at the cable car station. h iking in Switzerland is accessible because of the many cable cars and trains that can take you directly to viewpoints or the start of trails. Trails are clearly marked which makes unguided adventures possible.

can be spotted off Malapascua, and the famous Sardine Run in Moalboal.

Breakfast and an evening boodle fight was served at Bond, the name given to the shared kitchen, which is furnished for cooking and snacking. Connect, a coworking lounge, was designed for both collaborative and individual projects. Burn, the communal fitness center, encourages shared exercise. Then there’s Social Steps (here we did all-night videoke), h angout (Mezzanine), Dip (the outdoor swimming pool), Detox (the public toilets), Collab/ h uddle (a function room) and Wash & h ang (the social launderette). There is free private parking and additional services such as paid airport shuttle service, housekeeping and tour concierge are also provided.

Providing a dynamic and inclusive accommodation experience, blending comfort, convenience, and social interaction, lyf Cebu City, where cozy communal living meets the vibrant buzz of Cebu City, was really one of a kind and more than just a stay—it’s an experience waiting to happen! For inquiries, contact them at telephone number +6332 380 1980 or e-mail them at enquiry.philippines@theascott.com.

Moun Tain peaks towering over the trees along the Grütschalp,

A8 Saturday, March 23, 2024 • Editor: Gerard S. Ramos www.businessmirror.com.ph

BusinessMirror

Seventeen’s BSS named OPPO’s ‘Reno Experts’

BOOSEOKSOON or Seventeen’s BSS is the first sub-unit of the 13-member Korean group Seventeen. The group composed of Seungkwan, DK and Hoshi debuted in March 2018 with the single “Just Do It.” In 2023, they made a comeback with “Second Wind” Seungkwan, DK, and Hoshi are multi-talented artists. In Seventeen’s BSS, Seungkwan is the main vocalist, lead rapper and maknae (youngest), while DK is the leader, main vocalist, lead dancer and visual. Hoshi is the lead vocalist, main dancer and main rapper. Seungkwan and DK are known for their powerhouse vocals while Hoshi is an exceptional dancer and overall performer.

The group is best known for the catchy tune “Fighting [feat. Lee Young Ji].” They also won the Performance of the Year Award at the 2023 Asia Artist Awards, and the Best Digital Song at the 38th Golden Disc Awards.

What’s amazing about Seventeen’s BSS is that they’re not only good artists but they also have engaging personalities.

This is why, along with the rest of Seventeen, Seungkwan, DK and Hoshi have millions of fans all over the world.

Global leading smartphone brand OPPO has officially announced the appointment of BSS (Seventeen) members—Seungkwan, DK and Hoshi— as the latest OPPO Reno Experts for OPPO’s APAC markets.

“This marks the beginning of a new era of synergy between an industry leading smartphone brand and the dynamic South Korean artists known for their exuberant energy. This strategic partnership emphasises OPPO’s dedication to fostering global connections while delivering on its promise of accessible innovation,” said OPPO in a media statement.

OPPO continued, “The three members’ embodiment of youthful energy and a genuine love for self-expression perfectly represents the key features of OPPO’s latest smartphone, reflecting the dynamic qualities that set the OPPO Reno11 F 5G apart in the market.”

“The OPPO Reno series prides itself on being the portrait expert and we are thrilled to partner with BSS. It is not just about the innovation of the Reno series but more about providing a tool for genuine, joyous expression. We invite fans of OPPO and BSS to join us on this portrait photography journey to seize

the opportunity and showcase their creativity,” said Andy Shi, APAC president of OPPO.

As part of the collaboration, the BSS members are featured in a creative video where they could be seen capturing memories on the all-new portrait expert OPPO Reno11 F 5G and using key features including Smart Image Matting and AI Portrait Retouching to express their truest selves. To watch the full video, visit tinyurl.com/yc4ut67y.

The OPPO Reno11 F 5G is now available in the Philippines. The new addition to OPPO’s Reno lineup features a vibrant, eye-catching style, a 64MP Ultra-Clear Triple Camera, and a 120Hz AMOLED Borderless display.

The OPPO Reno11 F 5G has a rectangular silhouette to its camera module, compared to the oval design of the other phones in the series. The rectangular camera module has two circles that house the triple rear camera of the handset.

The Reno11 5G has a 6.7-inch Full HD+ AMOLED curved display with up to 120Hz refresh rate and HDR10+ support and dual stereo speakers with a peak brightness of 950 nits.

The device is powered by Mediatek Dimensity 7050—a chipset announced back in May 2023. It has an octa-core CPU which consists of two ARM Cortex-A78 that’s clocked at 2.6GHz with six ARM Cortex-A55 that has a max speed of 2.0GHz. It uses an ARM Mali-G68 MC4 for its GPU. For more updates from OPPO, visit www.oppo.com. ph. ■

I’m traveling for work or leisure. It’s just hassle-free and accepted anywhere!” As the newest endorser of Maya, Dolly De Leon adds more depth and undeniable charm. Known for her notable, award-winning performances, Dolly has become a notable figure in both the local and international film community. Her expanding horizons also means a busy schedule that sees her flying to film locations. Dolly takes full control over these changes by getting banked with Maya.

“I use Maya because I hate going to

schedule, to fill out forms for a simple transaction when I can do all of that on my phone. And just like Liza, I use my Maya card to pay for everything, especially when I’m traveling to various places for work. It really does let me do things with my money, my bank, my way,” Dolly said. Pepe Torres, Maya chief marketing officer, expresses his enthusiasm for the stars’ support, saying, “We’re thrilled to have both Liza and Dolly pushing boundaries of payments and banking with Maya, as evidenced in the newly launched short film. They make the country proud as

they achieve greater heights in the global scene. They embody the spirit of defiance and optimism, making them the perfect ambassadors for Maya.”

Maya continues to redefine everyday payments and banking as we know it. With Maya, getting banked and opening a savings account is now easier and more accessible than ever, requiring just one valid ID and no minimum balance or maintaining balance. Its best-in-class savings account offers up to 14 percent daily interest per annum, helping Filipinos get closer to their financial goals.

The Maya card is globally accepted at over 80 million stores and ATMs worldwide, offering unparalleled convenience for users. Filipinos can start investing in mutual funds, crypto, or stocks through Maya, unlocking opportunities to grow their wealth. Qualified customers can also enjoy instant approval for Maya loan products, providing financial flexibility when it’s needed most. Deposits are also insured up to P500,000 per depositor by the Philippine Deposit Insurance Corp. (PDIC), providing added peace of mind. Maya Bank is a digital bank supervised by the Bangko ng Pilipinas (BSP). More information is available at www.maya.ph or mayabank.ph.

Shellsoft urges PHL to form strong cybersecurity culture

BY RIZAL RAOUL S. REYES

SHELLSOFT Technology Corp., one of the top providers of cybersecurity solutions to Philippine enterprises, urged Filipino businesses to form a strong cybersecurity culture to protect their data and infrastructure.

In a recent gathering with the media, Shellsoft president and chief executive officer Edwin Boon presented a rather compelling discussion about “Cybersecurity Culture.” Digital transformation means “more data is online, within reach of cybercriminals,” Boon laid out. “Therefore, it is important to make it as difficult as possible for bad actors to succeed, rather than trying to clean up after they have achieved entry,” he expounded.

In 2023, there have been multiple high-profile cybersecurity breaches, involving even government agencies. In September of last year, the computer system of Philippine Health Insurance Corp. (PhilHealth) was compromised, affecting the personal data of over 13 million individuals. Further, the use of ransomware has also spiked.

According to Jon Clairmond Siy, Shellsoft chief security advisor, the use of ransomware in 2023 has surpassed the combined numbers of 2021 and 2022, and these will only continue to rise. “While those statistics may sound bleak, minimal awareness of cybersecurity can go a long way in preventing critical exposure,” he clarified. “That’s why it’s important to practice and promote a good cybersecurity culture, especially in the workplace,” he concluded.

“Cybersecurity culture” is a concept wherein everyone in a group or organization learns and applies minimal social media and cyber security literacy. It can be something as simple as awareness of the most common online threats (malware, spyware, ransomware, etc.), being wary of downloading suspicious software, or knowing the signs of fake websites that capture crucial login information. “We provide many advanced cybersecurity solutions to our corporate clients,” Boon said. “But apart from that, we also encourage them to teach their employees some of these basic security principles to further reinforce their organization’s cybersecurity at a fundamental end-user level,” he continued. “As cybersecurity threats continue to evolve, we should be able to keep up with the proverbial arms race. It’s our job as cybersecurity service providers and consultants; it’s what we’re hired to do. And you should [invest in cybersecurity] if you don’t want any missioncritical data compromised,”

Shellsoft chief operating officer JB Muñoz added: “But for more common threats, having that foundational knowledge and culture of cybersecurity can spell the difference between a minor hiccup and a massive breach.” Shellsoft is the provider of cybersecurity to the top 200 corporations in the country.

CONTINUED FROM A9

DCI-P3 Color Gamut and reaches up to 950 Nits of Brightness under direct sunlight. It also supports up to 20,000 levels of brightness for ease of use no matter how dim or dark the surrounding area is for eye protection. Most importantly for eye protection, it has 2160Hz PWM Dimming that helps lessen eye strain when the device is used in dark areas. It also has TÜV Rheinland for Flicker Free Certification and Low Blue Light Certification.

Lastly, the realme 12Pro+ has got to be

FINAL WORD: I do believe that the realme 12 Pro+ has set a new standard for cameras for midrange flagships, particularly when it comes to portrait photography. Whether captured in a meticulously arranged studio or the spontaneity of everyday settings, it consistently delivers unparalleled excellence. Again, here’s hoping that realme continues its focus on improving its periscope cameras and optimizing its video capabilities—and still maintain its superb pricing. ■

FROM left: Seungkwan, DK, and Hoshi of Seventeen’s BSS are the new OPPO Reno Experts.

Judge denies Apple’s attempt to dismiss classaction lawsuit over AirTag stalking

NEW YORK—A judge has denied Apple’s motion to dismiss a class-action lawsuit claiming that stalkers are using its AirTag devices to track victims—and that the tech giant hasn’t done enough to prevent them.

Apple’s $29 AirTags have become popular items since their 2021 release, helping users keep tabs on the location of anything from their lost keys to wallets and luggage. But stalkers have also taken advantage of AirTags and similar products to follow individuals without their consent.

In December 2022, Apple was sued by dozens of plaintiffs who said they were stalked by AirTag users. They alleged that Apple failed to mitigate such dangers and should have done more to protect victims—claiming AirTags “revolutionized the scope, breadth and ease of location-based stalking” and that current safety features are inadequate.

Apple attempted to dismiss the litigation in a filing last year, arguing the company “took proactive steps to try to deter misuse” and that it should not bear liability for injuries caused by third parties. But San Francisco-based US District Judge Vince Chhabria dismissed that motion on Friday.

Chhabria ruled that while most of the class-action plaintiffs’ claims were “inadequately pled,” three can proceed for negligence and strict product liability under California law. The remaining claims were dismissed in a separate order. “Apple may ultimately be right that California law did not require it to do more to diminish the ability of stalkers to use AirTags effectively, but that determination cannot be made at this early stage,” Chhabria wrote.

Chhabria detailed arguments from both Apple and the plaintiffs in the ruling. Included were accounts from the three remaining claims of victims being stalked by former partners or others through AirTags that were allegedly attached to their cars, resulting in emotional and sometimes financial harm.

All three of these cases involve “purported defects” of AirTags that made it harder for the victims to both understand the tracking and quickly stop it, Friday’s ruling outlines, including unclear or delayed notifications, as well as an inability to disable the devices remotely, which allegedly prolonged stalking. AP

Paula Rivera-Castillo, Head of Globe International Business.

Aside from South Korea, GoRoam is also available in Hong Kong, Taiwan, Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, UAE, Singapore, and the USA. GoRoam offers competitive rates, eliminating the hassles of buying and switching to local SIMs and renting pocket WiFi. This allows customers to conveniently retain their Globe number and access their regular services.

Promo subscription is simple and easy via the GlobeOne app. Customers simply need to access GlobeOne > click Buy Promos > Look for the Roaming promos section > and choose their preferred GoRoam offer. Registration via GCash is also now possible for Globe Prepaid and TM customers.

Once abroad, customers just need to switch on Mobile Data and Data Roaming to start surfing.

Globe’s commitment to extending its roaming offerings further underscores its dedication to meeting the varied needs of its customers, reinforcing its position as a frontrunner in delivering exceptional service and value.

More information is available at glbe.co/roam.

IT had been eight years in the waiting, but after being at the SMDC Festival Grounds for more than six hours, I had enough of Ed Sheeran— well, at least to last until his next concert tour.

I got up from my seat as he began his trio of encore songs, though I was still able to finish “Bad Habits” as it was a 5-minute walk from our section to the main exit gates. When he closed the show with “Bad Habits” and a fireworks display, I had just crossed JW Diokno Boulevard. on my way to Ayala Malls Manila Bay.

Despite being at the tail end of his Mathematics Tour (which began in 2022), Ed Sheeran’s performance never gave that impression. He kept pacing all around that revolving stage all night to make sure everybody got to see him—even the ones who unfortunately paid for seats that were literally at the back side of the stage. Yes, the seat plan was terrible, almost unfair even. The stage was in the middle and the layout didn’t even indicate where the front was, so those who bought tickets in our area mostly watched the back of Ed Sheeran. That revolving stage also made it look like Sheeran was performing on a microwave tray; as for the opening acts, Calum Scott and Ben&Ben, we barely saw their faces—except on the LED screens.

One of the things I look forward to when watching concerts sponsored by Smart Communications are the side activities and interactive booths. Too bad I didn’t even get the chance to see them because the entrance to the main portals were quite far and I was reserving the energy of my “tito” legs. I did see merch teams offering special Smart Bucket Hats for P99 and Dumpling Bags for P149—all you needed to do was top up with either Power All 99 or Magic Data P149. Too bad I forgot my prepaid sim because both items were cool collectibles.

PERISCOPE AND PORTRAIT MASTER

BESIDES getting to see Ed Sheeran perform live, the one other thing that excited me most about the concert was getting to test the realme 12 Pro+ 5G. With a 64MP Periscope Portrait Camera that can zoom up to 120x, I was curious how it could compare to those Huawei P series and Galaxy Ultra flagships. The realme 12 Pro+ 5G is priced at P25,999, and for context, flagship phones that offer these zoom capabilities cost almost three times as much.

The newest realme number series flagship also features its most advanced camera system with a 64MP Periscope Portrait Camera + 50MP Sony IMX890 OIS Camera and Sony LYT600 OIS Camera + an 8MP 112° Wide Angle Camera. At first, it might seem like a downgrade compared to the 200MP main cameras of its predecessor, but after using it for the past few weeks, I can say that the realme 12 Pro+ 5G actually can take even better photos that are just as detailed.

The most notable of these triple cameras is its 64MP Periscope Portrait Lens. Currently, it is the highest resolution telephoto lens on any smartphone camera in its segment, as even flagships only have a 10MP and a 5MP Telephoto Lens. This lens sets a new benchmark for telephoto capabilities for smartphones, as it offers up to 3x Telephoto Zoom and 6x In-Sensor Zoom. These enable the realme 12 Pro+ to capture detailed shots from varying distances. It also has one of the highest zoom capabilities in any smartphone in its segment, with other flagships only having up to 100x zoom capabilities.

The camera system utilizes an Omnivision 64B Sensor with a 1/2” sensor size, accompanied by OIS to reduce blur and improve image quality. It provides a focal length of 80mm in Portrait Mode and 71mm in Photo Mode, supporting up to 3x Portrait In-Sensor Zoom. This is very useful for those like me who have shaky hands and helps stabilize shots even when zoomed in. Advanced Cinematic Bokeh Algorithms are employed to enhance photo-realism, creating a more distinct separation between the subject and

background.

Photography System, integrating a 50MP Sony IMX890 sensor known for its large size and superior light intake capability, ensuring brightly lit photos despite a maximum of 50 megapixels. This camera, with a 24mm focal length and an f/1.8 aperture, excels in HDR and Nightscape photography, benefiting from its sensor’s light sensitivity.

both the Periscope Portrait Camera and the Sony IMX890 Camera are capable of using the “Master Portrait Filters” which are customized through the help of Oscar award winner for Best Cinematography Claudio Miranda. These movie-inspired filters guarantee to give your photos a unique look and include—Journey, inspired by the Life of Pi with yellow tones and high contrast colors to create a ”dream-like” tone; Memory, inspired by The Curious Case of Benjamin Button with cold tones and lowsaturation colors for a calm and capable vibe; and Maverick, inspired by Top Gun: Maverick with yellow-green tones, high contrast and high noise to create a retro film-like vibe.

As for selfies, it uses a 32MP Sony IMX615 Sensor that is known for taking very clear photos even in dimly lit areas. It also has a wide FOV at 90° for wider coverage when taking selfies.

During the pre-release campaign, realme challenged us to do a camera blind test, so I did a side-by-side comparison between the realme 12 Pro+ and the iPhone 15 Pro Max. While the iPhone still took better videos, I preferred the photos taken by the realme 12 Pro+ just because it made me look better showing less of my facial flaws. Even my friends would ask me to switch to my realme phone whenever we took selfies just because it made us look good. I also noticed that the realme 12 Pro+ also took less saturated and more natural photos compared to its predecessors.

So how did it perform during the Ed Sheeran concert? Well, if it wasn’t for my seat location, which again was at the back, I would have probably gotten even better photos. Since Ed and the stage were always moving, it was really hard to get a clear shot when taking shots past the 6x zoom. It might not be the best phone for concerts—yet—but give realme a year or two to optimize it just like those other flagships. I just hope realme does continue to develop its periscope camera and not switch to some other feature.

As far as other specs worth mentioning, you’ll be happy to know that it has a Qualcomm Snapdragon 7s Gen 2, an improved flagship-level octa-core processor that provides 5G connectivity and a powerful performance with up to 2.4GHz; 660,000++ AnTuTu

Score for benchmarks and high-level power efficiency with its 4nm architecture. This is paired with 12GBRAM that can be expanded up to 24GB via Dynamic RAM expansion and 512GB of storage. This means you can expect the smoothest performance as it can run all apps and even the more demanding games without any problem or slowdown. The 5000mAh battery allows up to 390.43 hours of standby, 35.03 hours of phone calls, 17.41 hours of YouTube streaming, 20.43 hours of chatting on WhatsApp, 21.6 hours on Twitter or X, 72.72 hours of music playback,

Sports

Marcial not taking Thai foe lightly, hopes to avoid injury

LBy Josef T. Ramos

OOKS can be deceiving. So Eumir Felix Marcial is not taking veteran opponent Thoedsak Sinam of Thailand lightly when they fight on Saturday night in a light heavyweight eight-rounder at the 6,000 capacity Ninoy Aquino Stadium.

Sinam stood inconspicuously among the other boxers at the Rizal Memorial Badminton Hall early Friday before the weigh-in. The crowd let out a small gasp as it turned out the man in the corner wearing blue hoodie and grey shorts, several inches shorter than the 5-foot11 Marcial, was the one set to take on the Filipino Olympic bronze medalist.

“I cannot take him for granted because I know he also prepared for this fight. A Thai opponent also fights hard up to the final bell, so I have to keep my focus,” the 28-year-old Paris Olympicbound Marcial said.

“The goal is to win the fight, safe, and with no injury.”

Marcial tipped the scale at 165 lbs, while Sinam weighed three pounds heavier.

Marcial, also a four-time Southeast Asian Games gold medalist, qualified for his second Olympic stint last October after bagging a silver medal in the light heavyweight division at the Hangzhou 19th Asian Games—a continental Olympic qualifying

tournament in China. And fighting in front of the Filipino crowd is absolutely huge for Marcial, who is aiming to improve his bronze finish in the last Tokyo Games almost three years ago when he fights in the Paris Olympics set July 26 to August 11.

“It’s long been a dream to fight here in the Philippines again, but now I’m fighting in the main event. This is also a rare opportunity to fight in a historic venue filled with fans,” Marcial said, who last fought in Manila in the 2019 Southeast Asian Games where he won the middleweight gold medal.

“This fight is part of my preparation for the Olympics. After I qualified from the Asian Games last year, I never fought then. So it’s very important for me to win and gain experience for the Paris Olympics.”

Sinam, a 28-year-old boxer from Thailand brought by Filipino matchmaker Brico Santig, sports a 2313 win-loss record with 19 knockouts, and he is coming in with back-to-back knockout victories.

Meanwhile, unbeaten Lienard Sarcon (11-0 with four knockouts) of General Santos City battles China’s Pong Huang (9-7-2 win-loss-draw with five knockouts) in the other main event organized by Manny Pacquiao’s MP Promotions headed by its President Sean Gibbons.

Blitz Game, Skills Challenge kick off PBA All-Star festivities

T|

Editor: Jun Lomibao

Go wins by four shots for maiden PGT crown

LLOYD GO turned the final round of the ICTSI Palos Verdes Championship into a victory lap on Friday, essaying a four-stroke victory with a 74 at the Rancho Palos Verdes and Sports Club in Davao.

An eight-stroke buffer after a third-round 65 was enough to cushion the blow of a series of mishaps, then produced a clutch birdie on the par-3 17th to secure the victory.

A former national amateur champion, Go finished at 12-under 276 total worth P350,000, finally breaking through in the pro ranks.

“I’ve been playing for so many years and haven’t won,” said Go, who turned pro in 2018. “But I finally broke the barrier and I’m really happy. Now, I can say that I’m an accomplished pro.” Go cracked under pressure after birdying No.

1, slipping with bogeys on Nos. 2, 6 and 11 and a double bogey on No. 5.

Yet, these blips hardly mattered as his pursuers either ran out of holes or struggled in the stretch.

Dutchman Guido van der Valk, 13 behind after three rounds, had an eagle-aided 65 to finish tied for second at 280.

Also finish at eight-under was Michael Bibat, 12 strokes off at the start of the day, who came up with a 66.

Bibat and Van der Valk split the combined P360,000 second and third prizes.

“I was really nervous. Even though I had a big lead, I couldn’t execute my shots. But I just hung in there,” said Go. “There was pressure but whenever I was out of position, I didn’t force it, aiming at the middle of green and making two putts.” Go put the outcome beyond doubt with a long birdie putt on the 17th, regaining a fourshot cushion.

in previous Philippine Golf Tour events, including in the Eagle Ridge Invitational in 2022. He also blew third round leads in consecutive Asian Development Tour events in September 2022, including in the BNI Ciputra Golfpreneur in Indonesia and losing a playoff battle in the BRG Open in Vietnam. But these setbacks, coupled with a missed cut stint in the Lexus Challenge in Vietnam last week, only strengthened his resolve. This week, Go showcased his winning form, putting in earlier rounds of 67-70 in the second leg of the circuit sponsored by ICTSI and organized by Pilipinas Golf Tournaments Inc. Go’s triumph also bodes well for his campaign in Japan next week as part of his ongoing efforts to elevate his game and compete at the highest level in the challenging yet lucrative circuit. Backed by Cebu Landmasters and Nature’s Spring, Go earned playing status in the Abema Tour, the Japan Golf Tour’s farm league, in last year’s Q-School.

HIDILYN DIAZ would not reveal her target lift but says she is close to hitting it.

“That was crucial,” he said. The triumph marked a redemption for Go, erasing the stigma of his past disappointments when leading after 54 holes

“That’s where I’m focusing on, together with the PGT, this year,” said Go, who is set to compete in the kickoff leg of the 12-stage circuit in Novil Cup slated April 3-5 at the J. Classic Golf Club in Tokushima Prefecture.

LLOYD GO gets a big boost ahead of his stint in Japan.

Hidilyn keeps cards close to chest ahead of final Olympic

OLYMPIC gold medalist Hidilyn Diaz-Naranjo said she is nearing her target lift heading into the sixth and last Olympic qualifier.

The International Weightlifting Federation (IWF) World Cup is set March 31 to April 11 in Phuket, Thailand, and Diaz is determined to make it count.

qualifying

Memorial Coliseum.

“Not just 100 percent, maybe 110 percent or more.”

Diaz-Naranjo, who has struggled since moving from -55 kgs to -59 kgs women’s division, didn’t reveal her target lift, but admitted the hardship she encountered in trying to achieve her goal during training in Jala-Jala, Rizal.

Ann Ando remains out of the 59 kgs Olympic ranking. Only 10 weightlifters per weight class per country will make it to the Paris Olympics, the list to be released in May by the IWF after the final qualifier in Thailand.

Diaz’s best lift so far is 224 kgs and Ando is at 222 kgs, which they posted in the 2023 World Championships in Saudi Arabia last September. Ando needs to surpass Diaz-Naranjo’s best lift in Thailand to unseat her as the country’s possible representative in Paris.

“The progress is very tough, very hard and there are frustrating moments. But this is what I love. Weightlifting is what I love and my passion. I want to win the gold medal in the Olympics for Philippines and for the people,” Diaz-Naranjo added.

(Meralco), Jason Perkins (Phoenix), Mo Tautuaa (San Miguel), and youngsters Clifford Jopia (Blackwater), Justin Arana (Converge), James Laput (Magnolia), JM Calma (Northport), Leonard Santillan (Rain or Shine), Isaac Go (Terrafirma), Brandon Ganuelas-Rosser (TNT), and late entry Ralph Cu (Barangay Ginebra), who takes the place of teammate Christian Standhardinger. Marcelo dethroned Beau Belga in last year’s contest in Passi City, Iloilo. Meanwhile, Magnolia’s Paul Lee will also aim for a back-to-back in the Long Distance Three-Point shootout among guards. Lee, who beat out Marcio Lassiter (San Miguel) and Juami Tiongson (Terrafirma) for the title last year, is up against another formidable cast of deadly gunners in Maverick Ahanmisi (Barangay Ginebra), two-time winner James Yap (Blackwater), Alec Stockton (Converge), Chris Newsome (Meralco), Robbie Herndon (NLEX), Arvin Tolentino (Northport), Ken Tuffin (Phoenix), Andrei Caracut (Rain or Shine), Javi Gomez de Liano (Terrafirma), Calvin Oftana (TNT), and Lassiter.

will also be held, but involving 12 of the league’s big men as a replacement for the traditional Slam Dunk contest.

The players competing in the Obstacle Challenge are also entered in the event, with the exception of Christian David (Blackwater) and Keith Zaldivar (Converge).

In yet another novelty plan, a second version of the Three-Point shootout

The main offering will pit Team Greats of Brandon Ganuelas-Rosser vs. Team Stalwarts of Kyt Jimenez at 6:15 p.m.

France president’s boxing photo draws mixed reactions

By Laurie Kellman & Sylvie Corbet The Associated Press

LONDON—The teeth clench.

The brow furrows. The bicep bulges.

Across the English Channel, reviews of “macho Macron” were less flattering. “Macron: Le grand narcissist,” groused the Daily

In moody black and white, photos of French President Emmanuel Macron pounding a punching bag arched eyebrows across Europe on Thursday after his official photographer posted them to social media in what was widely received as the latest round in his drive to toughen up the region’s response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. But reviews were mixed along political lines. Some in France said Macron, who is 46, looked like a “warrior” and likened him to movie heroes like Rocky Balboa and Robert DeNiro’s character in “Raging Bull.” EMMANUEL MACRON

Mail. And Daniel Johnson in the Telegraph called him “a prancing poseur”: “Past presidents like Resistance hero General de Gaulle

“I’m already at 90 to 95 percent in my goal so I expect myself to be at 100 percent in the competition and also during the Olympic proper,” the 32-year-old Zamboanga City weightlifter told reporters during the Philippine Sports Commission (PSC) Women’s Awards last Wednesday. Diaz was one of the Flame Awardees along with volleyball standout Alyssa Valdez, Olympian skateboarder Margielyn Didal, billiards icon Rubilen Amit and mountain climber Carina Dayondon in the event held at the Rizal

NATIONAL University and the University of Santo Tomas drubbed their respective rivals to kick off the Philippine National Volleyball Federation (PNVF) Under-18 Championship women’s division on Friday at the

felt no need to show off.”

Macron’s office said it would not comment on the photos. But the images were interpreted by many on social media as reflecting his pressure on other Western countries to more strongly defend Ukraine as the war enters its third year. Last month, he said the possibility of Western troops being sent to Ukraine could not be ruled out, a comment that prompted an outcry from other leaders.

TOUGHNESS AS A POLITICAL TOOL

POLITICAL history is filled with leaders using visuals to display toughness, virility and strength.

Russia’s president, Vladimir Putin, famously posed shirtless on a horse and was recorded apparently showing off his judo skills. The United States had cowboys Ronald Reagan and George W. Bush, ranch owners in California and Texas respectively, who were widely photographed wearing cowboy hats and boots and sometimes riding horses.

Five Olympic qualifiers have been held and Diaz-Naranjo has slid from seventh to eighth place in the Olympic ranking of women’s -59 kgs after her non-participation in the Asian Championships in Tashkent, Uzbekistan in February.

Diaz-Naranjo’s Filipino counterpart Tokyo Olympian Erleen

Rizal Memorial Coliseum.  The Lady Bullpups made short work of Colegio de Los Baños, 25-10, 25-12, while the Junior Golden Tigresses fended off King’s Montessori School, 25-16, 25-23, in Pool A and B, respectively.

Diaz-Naranjo’s husband strength and conditioning and head coach Julius Naranjo is facilitating the daily trainings in Jala-jala and they did not set camp overseas since the competition is only in the Southeast Asian region.

Other Filipino weightlifters seeking spots in the Paris Olympics are Vanessa Sarno, Rosegie Ramos and John Febuar Ceniza, who are also in the top 10 of their Olympic rankings at their respective weight classes.

Sarno is No. 5 in the women’s +71 kgs, Ramos is No. 9 in women’s 49 kgs and Ceniza is No. 6 in men’s 61 kgs. Josef T. Ramos

NU needed only 38 minutes to post the win while UST found KMS a tough nut to crack in the second set to earn the sweep in 57 minutes.  Also in Pool B, San Juan Institute of Technology-Batangas trounced neighbor Canossa Academy-Lipa, 25-14, 25-20, to join NU as early group leaders in the 12-team tilt for the country’s best spikers aged 18 and below.  Action continues on Saturday at the same venue as VNS Savouge clashes with Colegio de Los Baños in men’s Pool B at 10 a.m. followed by Umingan Pangasinan against Hermosa Bataan at 11:30 a.m. in the same pool and La Salle-Lipa versus Canossa AcademyLipa at 1 p.m. in men’s Pool A.  In the afternoon games for the women’s division, Canossa AcademyLipa looks to rebound against La Salle Lipa at 2:30 p.m. in Pool B, Kings’ Montessori School battles Limitless Sports Center at 4 p.m. in Pool A while UAAP power La Salle-Zobel debuts at 5:30 p.m. in Pool A against Graceland Christian College.

The first youth tournament of the PNVF headed by President Ramon “Tats” Suzara is using three-set play in the prelims before holding regular five-set matches in the playoffs.

EUMIR MARCIAL looks to put on a show for the home crowd as he tries to stop Thailand’s Thoedsak Sinam.

MYAN MACASINAG helps San Juan notch an early win.

The World

UN set to vote on US resolution urging immediate cease-fire in Israel-Hamas war to protect civilians

By Edith M. Lederer The Associated Press

UNITED NATIONS—The United Nations Security Council is set to vote on a United States-sponsored resolution declaring that “an immediate and sustained cease-fire” in the IsraelHamas war in Gaza is “imperative” to protect civilians and enable humanitarian aid to be delivered to more than 2 million hungry Palestinians.

US Ambassador Linda ThomasGreenfield said she was optimistic that the new, tougher draft resolution would be approved Friday by the 15-member council.

The draft being put to a vote “determines”—which is a council order—“the imperative of an immediate and sustained cease-fire,” with no direct link to the release of hostages taken during Hamas’ October 7 attack on Israel, which was in the previous draft. But it would unequivocally support diplomatic efforts “to secure such a cease-fire in connection with the release of all remaining hostages.”

Russia’s deputy UN ambassador Dmitry Polyansky said Moscow will not be satisfied “with anything that doesn’t call for an immediate cease-fire,” saying it’s what US Secretary of State Antony Blinken is pressing for and what “everybody” wants. He questioned the wording of the draft, asking, “What’s an imperative? I have an imperative to give you $100, but… it’s only an imperative, not $100.”

“So, somebody’s fooling around, I think, (with the) international community,” the Russian envoy said.

The Security Council had already adopted two resolutions on the worsening humanitarian situation in Gaza, but none calling for a cease-fire.

Russia and China vetoed a US-sponsored resolution in late October calling for pauses in the fighting to deliver aid, protection of civilians, and a halt to arming Hamas. They said it didn’t reflect global calls for a cease-fire.

The US, Israel’s closest ally, has vetoed three resolutions demanding a cease-fire, the most recent an Arab-backed measure supported by 13 council members with one abstention on February 20.

A day earlier, the US circulated a rival resolution, which has gone through major changes during negotiations before Friday’s vote. It initially would have supported a temporary cease-fire linked to the release of all hostages, and the previous draft would have supported international efforts for a cease-fire as part of a hostage deal.

The vote will take place as Blinken, America’s top diplomat, is on his sixth urgent mission to the Middle East since the IsraelHamas war, discussing a deal for a cease-fire and hostage release, as well as post-war scenarios.

Nate Evans, the spokesperson for the US Mission to the United Nations who announced the Friday morning vote, said: “This resolution is an opportunity for the Council to speak with one voice to support the diplomacy happening on the ground and pressure Hamas to accept the deal on the table.”

Meanwhile, the 10 elected

members of the Security Council have been drafting their own resolution, which would demand an immediate humanitarian ceasefire for the Muslim holy month of Ramadan that began March 10 to be “respected by all parties leading to a permanent sustainable cease-fire.”

It also demands “the immediate and unconditional release of all hostages “ and emphasizes the urgent need to protect civilians and deliver humanitarian aid throughout the Gaza Strip.

Palestinian militants killed some 1,200 people in the surprise October 7 attack into southern Israel that triggered the

war, and abducted another 250 people. Hamas is still believed to be holding some 100 people hostage, as well as the remains of 30 others.

In Gaza, the Health Ministry raised the death toll in the territory Thursday to nearly 32,000 Palestinians. It doesn’t differentiate between civilians and combatants in its count but says women and children make up two-thirds of the dead.

The international community’s authority on determining the severity of hunger crises warned this

week that “famine is imminent” in northern Gaza, where 70 percent of people are experiencing catastrophic hunger. The report from the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification initiative, or IPC, warned that escalation of the war could push half of Gaza’s

total population to the brink of starvation.

The US draft would express “deep concern about the threat of conflict-induced famine and epidemics presently facing the civilian population in Gaza as well as the number of undernourished people, and also that hunger in Gaza has reached catastrophic levels.”

It would emphasize “the urgent need to expand the flow of humanitarian assistance to civilians in the entire Gaza Strip” and lift all barriers to getting aid to civilians “at scale.”

The draft was being put in “blue” Thursday night, which is the final form required for a vote.

After closed council consultations on Gaza late Thursday, France’s UN Ambassador Nicolas de Rivière told reporters: “There is a desire to take action, no one want to procrastinate, so we hope that a decision can be made by tomorrow (Friday) evening.”

“There are two options: Either the US text is adopted and then we’ll move to the next phase of this crisis management,” he said, “or the text is not adopted and then the draft of the elected members will come to the table

and put to the vote, and I hope it will be adopted.”

Israel faces mounting pressure from even its closest allies to streamline the entry of aid into the Gaza Strip and to open more land crossings, and come to a cease-fire agreement. But Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has vowed to move the military offensive to the southern city of Rafah, where some 1.3 million displaced Palestinians have sought safety. Netanyahu says it’s a Hamas stronghold. The final US draft eliminated language in the initial draft that said Israel’s offensive in Rafah “should not proceed under current circumstances.” Instead, in an introductory paragraph, the council would emphasize its concern that a ground offensive into Rafah “would result in further harm to civilians and their further displacement, potentially into neighboring countries, and would have serious implications for regional peace and security.”

For the first time in a UN resolution, the US draft would condemn “all acts of terrorism, including the Hamas-led attacks of October 7, 2023, as well as its taking and killing of hostages, murder of civilians, and sexual violence, including rape.”

US United Nations Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield, center, addresses a meeting of the United Nations Security Council on the war in Gaza on March 11, 2024, at UN headquarters. The United Nations Security Council is set to vote on a United States-sponsored resolution declaring that “an immediate and sustained cease-fire” in the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza is “imperative” to protect civilians and enable humanitarian aid to be delivered to more than 2 million hungry Palestinians. AP/BEBETO MATTHEWS

Russia strikes Ukraine’s power infrastructure, causing widespread outages and loss of lives

By Hanna Arhirova & Jim Heintz The Associated Press

KYIV, Ukraine—Russia attacked electrical power facilities in much of Ukraine, including the country’s largest hydroelectric plant, causing widespread outages and killing at least three people, officials said Friday.

Energy Minister German Galushchenko said the nighttime drone and rocket attacks were “the largest attack on the Ukrainian energy sector in recent times. The goal is not just to damage, but to try again, like last year, to cause a large-scale disruption of the country’s energy system.”

The attacks caused a fire at the Dnipro Hydroelectric Station, which supplies electricity to the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant, Europe’s largest nuclear power installation.

IN

The main 750-kilovolt power line to the plant was cut off, International Atomic Energy Agency head Rafael Grossi said early Friday. A lower-power backup line was working, he said.

The plant is occupied by Russian troops, and fighting around the plant has been a constant concern because of the potential for a nuclear accident. The dam at the hydroelec -

Lawmakers unveil $1.2 trillion spending package to avoid federal shutdown and close budget fight

WBy Kevin Freking The Associated Press

ASHINGTON—Lawmakers introduced a $1.2 trillion spending package Thursday that sets the stage for avoiding a partial government shutdown for several key federal agencies this weekend and allows Congress, nearly six months into the budget year, to complete its work funding the government through September.

Democrats were able to swat back scores of policy mandates and some of the steeper budget cuts that House Republicans were seeking to impose on nondefense programs, though House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., highlighted some wins, including a nearly 24 percent increase in detention beds for migrants awaiting their immigration proceedings or removal from the country.

This year’s spending bills were divided into two packages. The first one cleared Congress two weeks ago, just hours before a shutdown deadline for the agencies funded through the bills.

She also said Democrats successfully fought off numerous policy measures, known as riders, that House Republicans were seeking to add.

tric station was not in danger of breaching, the country’s hydroelectric authority said. A dam breach could not only disrupt supplies to the nuclear plant but would potentially cause severe flooding similar to what occurred last year when a major dam at Kakhovka further down the Dnieper collapsed.

One person was killed and at least eight injured in the Russian attack, said Zaporizhzhia regional governor Ivan Fedorov.

Attacks on energy facilities in the Kharkiv region caused blackouts, and other attacks were reported in areas of western Ukraine far from the front lines.

Two people died in the Khmelnytskyi region, according to the Internal Affairs Ministry.

“The world sees the targets of Russian terrorists as clearly as possible: power plants and energy supply lines, a hydroelectric dam, ordinary residential

buildings, even a trolleybus. Russia is fighting against the ordinary life of people,” President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Friday on the Telegram messaging app.

Russian officials said Friday that one person died and at least three were injured in Ukrainian shelling of areas near the border.

The governor of the Belgorod region, Vyacheslav Gladkov, said a woman was killed when a shell hit nearby while she was walking her dogs and that two others were injured. The town of Tetkino in the Kursk region was shelled, injuring one person, said Gov. Roman Starovoit.

Both regions have been subject to shelling and drone attacks in recent weeks and officials have said that attempts by Ukrainian fighters to cross into Russian territory have been repelled.

Heintz reported from Tallinn, Estonia.

“Congress must now race to pass this package before government funding runs out this Friday,” said Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y. Nondefense spending will be relatively flat compared with the prior year, though some agencies, such as the Environmental Protection Agency, are taking a hit, and many agencies will not see their budgets keep up with inflation.

When combining the two packages, discretionary spending for the budget year will come to about $1.66 trillion. That does not include programs such as Social Security and Medicare, and financing the country’s rising debt.

Now Congress is focused on the second, larger package, which includes about $886 billion for the Defense Department, a more than 3 percent increase from last year’s levels. The 1,012-page bill also funds the departments of Homeland Security, Health and Human Services, Labor, and others.

The House is expected to take the measure up first on Friday. House Majority Leader Steve Scalise, R-La., urged Republicans to vote for the measure, noting that more than 70 percent of the spending goes to defense.

“At a time when the world’s on fire, more than ever, we need to make sure that we are properly funding our nation’s defense and supporting our troops,” Scalise said.

Then it would move to the Senate where senators would have to agree on taking it up expeditiously

to avoid a partial shutdown. Usually, such agreements include votes on proposed amendments to the bill.

Johnson described the bill as a serious commitment to strengthening national defense while expanding support for those serving in the military. The bill provides for a 5.2 percent pay increase for service members.

In promoting the bill, Republicans cited several ways it would help Israel. Most notably, they highlighted a prohibition on funding through March 2025 for the U.N. Relief and Works Agency, which is the main supplier of food, water and shelter to civilians in Gaza.

Republicans are insisting on cutting off funding to the agency after Israel alleged that a dozen employees of the agency were involved in the attack that Hamas conducted in Israel on October 7.

But the prohibition does concern some lawmakers because many relief agencies say there is no way to replace its ability to deliver the humanitarian assistance that the United States and others are trying to send to Gaza, where one-quarter of the 2.3 million residents are starving.

Democrats emphasized that humanitarian assistance will increase globally though, by about $336.4 million.

Sen. Patty Murray, the chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee, also highlighted a $1 billion increase for Head Start programs and new child care centers for military families. Democrats also played up a $120 million increase in funding for cancer research and a $100 million increase for Alzheimer’s research.

“We defeated outlandish cuts that would have been a gut punch for American families and our economy,” said Murray, D-Wash.

“From Day 1 of this process, I said there would be no extreme, far-right riders to restrict women’s reproductive freedoms—and there aren’t, she said.

Among the policy provisions that House Republicans did secure was a requirement that only allows for the American flag and “other official flags” to fly over US diplomatic facilities. Under the Biden administration, US embassies have been invited to fly the pride flag or light up with rainbow colors in support of the LGBTQ community.

There is also a provision that prevents the Consumer Product Safety Commission from banning gas stoves. But the White House has said President Joe Biden would not support a ban, and the commission, an independent agency, says no such ban was in the works.

The spending in the bill largely tracks with an agreement that former Speaker Kevin McCarthy worked out with the White House in May 2023, which restricted spending for two years and suspended the debt ceiling into January 2025 so the federal government could continue paying its bills.

Shalanda Young, director of the White House Office of Management and Budget, told lawmakers Thursday that last year’s agreement, which became the Fiscal Responsibility Act, will save taxpayers about $1 trillion over the coming decade.

McCarthy, R-Calif., was ousted from the speaker’s role a few months after securing the debt ceiling deal. Eight Republicans ended up joining with Democrats in removing McCarthy as speaker. And some of those unhappy with that deal also expressed misgivings about the latest package.

“I hope there will be some modest wins. Unfortunately, I don’t expect that we will get much in the way of significant policy wins based on past history and based on our unwillingness to use any kind of leverage to force policy wins, meaning a willingness to walk away and say no,” said Rep. Bob Good, R-Va.

US surgeons transplant gene-edited pig kidney into a patient for first time

By Mike Stobbe AP Medical Writer

NEW YORK—Doctors in Boston have transplanted a pig kidney into a 62-year-old patient, the latest experiment in the quest to use animal organs in humans.

Massachusetts General Hospital said Thursday that it’s the first time a genetically modified pig kidney has been transplanted into a living person. Previously, pig kidneys have been temporarily transplanted into brain-dead donors. Also, two men received heart transplants from pigs, although both died within months.

The patient, Richard “Rick” Slayman of Weymouth, aSaturday and is expected to be discharged soon, doctors said Thursday.

Dr. Tatsuo Kawai, the transplant surgeon, said the team believes the pig kidney will work for at least two years. If it fails, Slayman could go back on dialysis, said kidney specialist Dr. Winfred Williams. He

noted that unlike the pig heart recipients who were very sick, Slayman is “actually quite robust.”

Slayman had a kidney transplant at the hospital in 2018, but had to go back on dialysis last year when it showed signs of failure. When dialysis complications arose requiring frequent procedures, his doctors suggested a pig kidney transplant, he said in a statement released by the hospital.

“I saw it not only as a way to help me, but a way to provide hope for the thousands of people who need a transplant to survive,” said Slayman, a systems manager for the Massachusetts Department of Transportation.

The transplant surgery took four hours, with 15 people in the operating room who applauded when the kidney turned pink and started making urine, doctors said at a news conference. “It was truly the most beautiful kidney I have ever seen,” said Kawai.

Dr. Parsia Vagefi, chief of surgical transplantation at UT Southwestern Medical Center, called the announcement “a big step forward.” But echoing the Boston doctors, he said studies involving more patients at different medical centers would be needed for it to become more commonly available.

The experiment marks the latest development in xenotransplantation, the term for efforts to try to heal human patients with cells, tissues, or organs from animals. For decades, it didn’t work—the human immune system immediately destroyed foreign animal tissue. More recent attempts have involved pigs that have been modified so their organs are more humanlike—increasing hope that they might one day help fill a shortage of donated organs.

More than 100,000 people are on the national waiting list for a transplant, most of them kidney patients, and thousands die every year before their turn comes.