Tap foreign relations for PH growth—Group

“THERE is a need to continuously explore both bilateral and multilateral infrastructure development partnerships and engage in public-private partnerships to maximize potential gains for the Filipino nation.”

ADRi president Dindo Manhit issued this statement on Monday at a forum entitled “The Geopolitics of Infrastructure: Opportunities and Challenges for the Philippines and the Indo-Pacific,” organized by the Stratbase ADR Institute think tank group. Manhit said bilateral and multilateral cooperation with like-minded nations can usher in prosperity and development for all.

He added however, that inter-governmental partnerships must still be guided by the Philippines’ independent foreign policy and national interests.

“The current administration must ensure that it safeguards the Philippines from potential economic, financial, and security risks, I refer back to what I was sharing earlier on non-traditional security risks, that may arise from these partnerships by ensuring that appropriate studies are conducted on the feasibility and sustainability of projects that it engages in,” Manhit explained.

11 serious incidents in the last four years (2019-2023).

Apolonio explained that Accidents are occurrences in the operation of an aircraft in which either a person is fatally of seriously injured, the aircraft sustains damage or structural failure, and/or the aircraft is mission or is completely inaccessible.

Incidents, on the other hand, are occurrences associated with the operation of an aircraft which affects or could affect the safety of operation while Serious Incidents involves circumstances that indicate that there was a high probability of an accident.

The latest incident (Cessna 340) happened more than three weeks following the disappearance of another Cessna plane with six persons on board that also went missing in Isabela Province.

EDC chairman Federico Lopez told reporters that as of Wednesday morning, the rescuers were already near the site but the steep terrain has posed a challenge to the search and rescue mission.

“Even if you’re only a kilometer away, it’s very hard to get to. So there’s a safety issue also on the part of the rescuers. They have to make sure they do it right given that Mayon is at Alert Level 2. And they have to make sure they have the right route too because it’s subject to flash floods if you get rain. So they’re being very careful,” Lopez said.

“Amidst the current geopolitical landscape and as we transition to a path of postpandemic recovery, the current administration must increase its efforts in building and modernizing our infrastructure networks while further improving the ease of doing business and creating a more enabling regulatory development for both local and foreign investors to take part in infrastructure development,” he added.

Former Public-Private Partnership Center executive director and Aboitiz InfraCapital president and chief executive officer Cosette Canilao said private sector participation in infrastructure projects

DFA warns OFWs in Hawaii, Samoa vs. crytocurrency scammers

By Rey E. Requejo

THE Department of Foreign Affairs

(DFA) on Wednesday warned Filipinos in Hawaii and American Samoa against being duped by a criminal syndicate who ostensibly offer jobs as call center agents in Southeast Asia, might end up as crypto scammers.

The DFA through the Philippine Embassy in Honolulu raised the warning for those under its jurisdiction, noting that some “Filipino victims are enticed” by these “spurious job offers.”

“Once they are recruited, the Filipino victims are issued tickets to fly to a Southeast Asian country, from which they are taken to adjacent countries and brought to remote areas,” the embassy said.

The embassy said the recruits “forced to work as online scammers engaged in cryptocurrency” and others.

The embassy also said the victims usually experience many forms of abuse, including physical and psychological abuse, prolonged working hours under difficult work conditions, nonpayment of wages and confiscation of passports and devices.

Some are even held hostage, demanded to pay an exorbitant amount in exchange for freedom, and worse, amputation and death, the embassy added.

It also feared of some victims being sold by syndicates to be engaged in other forms of slavery, including sexual slavery.

It can be recalled that the DFA rescued a number of Filipinos from Myanmar and Cambodia who were victimized by such syndicates.

Pampanga raids net P754.8m worth of illegal drugs, arrest of 4 suspects

By Rio N. Araja

A COMPOSITE anti-narcotics team lead by the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) has seized P754.8 million worth of shabu in two buy-bust operations over the weekend in Pampanga. One of the raids netted 81 kilos of the illegal drugs worth P550.8 million in a buy-bust operation on Feb. 19 in a townhouse in Barangay Pampang.

A suspect, identified as Chinese national Willy Tan Zhang, a 51, collapsed upon arrest and was brought to the Rafael Lazatin Memorial Medical Center where he was declared dead on arrival.

A 30-year-old Filipina, was also arrested during the raid.

Also on Feb. 19, another operation was conducted along Poinsettia Avenue in Barangay Pampang, resulting in the seizure of 30 kilos of suspected shabu worth P204 million from drug suspects Yi Xin Li, 49, a Chinese resident of Tondo, Manila, and Mark June Barsaga, 23, of Lucena City in Quezon province.

The suspects also yielded non-drug evidence, including several mobile phones, a gray Toyota Avanza, identification cards and the buy-bust money.

All the suspects would face drug charges.

provide a number of benefits such as increased financial capability, availability of technology, experts and managerial competence, and improved service efficiency, if public-private contracts are done right.

“[As] PPP investors, we look for projects that are bankable – where risks are fairly allocated between the government and us. And we prefer investing in a market where there is very steep commitment by the government to undertake an effective PPP program,” she explained.

“What we are hoping for next is the speedy evaluation and approval of numerous projects in the pipeline. It will also occur well for the private sector if there’s clear and consistent communication of directions and timelines when projects are expected to be evaluated or approved. Currently, the infrastructure efforts of the government are kind of reactive – reactive responses to existing problems to society.