Climate-tied damage hits ₧506.1B–DOF By Bernadette D. Nicolas @BNicolasBM
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LIMATE-RELATED hazards resulted in an estimated P506.1 billion (about $10 billion) in losses and damage for the Philippines in over a decade, the Department of Finance (DOF) said. Based on DOF data, this already makes up 98.2 percent of the country’s total estimated losses and damage of P515.1 billion (around $10.6 billion) from 2010 to 2020. Annually, this is equivalent to an average of P48.9 billion, which is about 0.33 percent of the GDP. T his, despite the Philippines contributing only 0.3 percent of
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the planet’s total greenhouse gas emissions. The DOF said this shows the country’s “extreme vulnerability to the climate crisis,” adding that the Philippines constantly experiences unavoidable losses and damage amounting to 0.5 percent of its annual GDP primarily from an increasingly unpredictable climate. Every year, the Philippines is struck by around 20 tropical cyclones and an almost daily occurrence of seismic shocks. Being a climate-v ulnerable countr y, t he Phi l ippines has much at stake in reversing the devastating effects of globa l w a r m i ng , Fi n a nce Sec ret a r y Carlos Dominguez III said.
“As I have said on many occasions, I am determined to set the Philippines as an example for all nations in setting the standards for mitigating the impact of climate change. I want us to be a world leader in this area through our climate ambition,” said Dominguez. Dominguez, who is chairmandesignate of the Climate Change Commission (CCC), heads the Philippine delegation to the ongoing 26th United Nations Climate Change Conference of the Parties (COP26) in Glasgow, Scotland. At the opening of the 2021 Annual Meeting of the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB), Dominguez earlier called on Western countries that are largely re-
sponsible for the most GHG emissions to act now in significantly reducing their carbon footprints, and to make good on their commitments to extend the financing needed by climate-vulnerable countries to transition to a clean energy future. The finance chief said earlier the need for these countries to accept the responsibility of financing the transition to carbon neutrality. The Philippines has committed to a projected greenhouse gas emission reduction and avoidance of 75 percent from 2020 to 2030 for the sectors of agriculture, wastes, industry, transport, and See “DOF,” A2
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PHL ON TOP 10 SOURCES OF CYBER ATTACKS LIST By Tyrone Jasper C. Piad @Tyronepiad
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BIG portion of humaninitiated cyber attacks in the first half came from the Philippines, which is now included among the top 10 countries in the world where digital threats originate. According to LexisNexis Risk Solutions’ January to June 2021 Cybercrime Report, the Philippines ranked 6th in terms of volume of human-initiated cyber attacks during the period. The list of top contributors include (in order) the United States, Canada, Brazil, Mexico, United Kingdom, Saudi Arabia, Germany, Japan and Russia. “The growth in attack volume from the Philippines was largely driven by a credit card testing attack targeting a payment gateway
MOTHER and child attend evening Mass at the Diocesan Shrine and Parish of Our Lady of Light, popularly known as Cainta Church, in Barangay San Andres, Cainta, Rizal. The church houses the venerated painting of the Our Lady of Light, a destroyed Sicilian painting from 1727 recreated by National Artist Fernando Amorsolo after the original relic was burned during the Filipino-American war in 1899. BERNARD TESTA By Bianca Cuaresma
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HE country’s manufacturing sector recorded its second consecutive growth month in October, largely on the back of eased restrictions and early recovery in demand. See “PMI,” A2
in March,” the US-based data and analytics firm said. The Philippines and Russia replaced India and Netherlands on the list amid the surging cases of cyber attacks. LexisNexis noted that human-initiated attacks across the globe declined by 9 percent to 236 million in the first half. Most of these targeted mobile users at 54 percent, the remainder was for computer users. Meanwhile, automated bot attacks surged by 41 percent to 1.2 billion. More than half of these were aimed at financial services. “High-velocity automated attacks that typically mass-test stolen identity credentials on a particular use case, originating from a machine or series of machines, have grown across See “Cyber attacks,” A2
‘Excessive payments’ spark BOT change move
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HE Phi lippine gover nment is eyeing to amend the implementing rules and regulations (IR R) of the Build-Operate-Transfer (BOT) Law in a bid to protect the public from “excessive payments and undue guarantees” arising from projects under the Public-Private Partnership (PPP). Socioeconomic Planning
Secretary Karl Kendrick T. Chua, who was designated chairman of the BOT IRR Committee by President Duterte, said PPPs have the potential to help stimulate the economy, bring back jobs and address people’s needs. “However, it is the government’s job, on behalf of the Filipino people, to ensure that private sector interests are aligned
to the public’s interests, with the overall goal of providing the best services to the people,” Chua said in a statement. Chua pointed out that PPPs with unwarranted guarantees, contingent liabilities, and other onerous contract provisions take up the government’s already-limited fiscal space and hamper the countr y’s development. These
resources could have been used to build other infrastructure or provide social services for the people. Apart from protecting the public from excessive payments, the amendments also aim to facilitate the development of wellstructured PPPs that deliver highquality services to the people and See “BOT,” A2
PESO exchange rates n US 50.5520 n japan 0.4435 n UK 69.0945 n HK 6.4953 n CHINA 7.9010 n singapore 37.4904 n australia 38.0202 n EU 58.6808 n SAUDI arabia 13.4773 Source: BSP (2 November 2021)