WHO regional head risks ouster

THE World Health Organization’s executive board was on Monday debating firing a powerful regional director over accusations of abusive, racist behaviour, several sources said.

The WHO executive board called a special closed-door session to discuss the case of Japanese doctor Takeshi Kasai, the suspended head of the UN health agency’s Western Pacific region, according to two diplomatic sources who asked not to be named.

The WHO meeting, which will wrap up Tuesday, was officially scheduled to consider “the recommendation of the Regional Committee for the Western Pacific,” which was held in the regional headquarters in Manila last week, also behind closed-doors.

the Standard, even as he vowed to upgrade the country’s defense capabilities and improve the military’s maritime patrol capability.

The President yesterday led the ceremonial blessing of the Philippine Air Force’s new C-295 medium lift aircraft at Clark Air Base in Pampanga, then was seen in pictures in full flight gear aboard an FA-50PH fighter jet on the tarmac.

The flight took Mr. Marcos over an area called IMTA (Intensive Military Training Area)-1 Zambales Area in the West Philippine Sea, together with four other jet fighters, the Standard source said.

A separate source from the Presidential Security Group, however, said it was only a “familiarization flight.”

It was related to a capability demonstration made by the PAF to showcase the performance and ability of the country’s air fleet, the source added.

As of press time, the Presidential Communications Office has not confirmed if Mr. Marcos indeed flew over the WPS.

Upon alighting from the jet, the Air Force gave the President the call sign “Lawin” (eagle) and gave the President the Mach Buster, FA-50PH, and call sign badges for his flight suit.

Meanwhile, PCG Commodore Jay Tarriela said during a public briefing that the Coast Guard station in Pag-asa has been radioing the Chinese ships reminding them that the 12 nautical miles of waters off Pag-asa Island is part of the territorial sea of the Philippines.

Although the Coast Guard stresses that “we have sovereignty here,” the ships from China do not budge or respond to their repeated radio calls, Tarriela added.

The vessels seen wandering Philippine waters last Saturday “are still roving in our seas,” he said.

This was after the PCG reported the presence of a People’s Liberation Army (PLA) Navy vessel, China Coast Guard vessel 5203, and 42 suspected Chinese maritime militia vessels.

Tensions has been rising in past weeks between the Philippines and China after a Chinese ship used a “high-powered” laser light on a PCG vessel that was on a rotation and resupply mission for the Philippine Navy.

Since the incident, the Philippines filed a diplomatic protest against China regarding the laser use, which the Defense Department and several lawmakers called “offensive and unsafe.”

At Clark Air Base, President Marcos noted the fact that the Philippines is an archipelago of 7,640 islands, which requires a wider range of air defense which was a challenge to the PAF.

While WHO has not revealed what recommendation was being considered, the diplomatic sources told AFP that the Manila meeting had called for Kasai to be dismissed.

“Up to the 11th hour they were giving him the option to resign,” but Kasai refused, one of the diplomatic sources said.

“The vote was very close, 13-11…

There were a lot of phone calls behind the scenes,” the source said, adding that Japan had tried to block a report on an investigation into the case from being published.

A slew of accusations against Kasai emerged in January last year from staff past and present, in revelations first published by the Associated Press news agency.

Kasai, who denied the allegations, was accused of presiding over a “toxic atmosphere” at the WHO’s Western Pacific headquarters in Manila with a culture of “systemic bullying and public ridiculing.”

The staff, who wished to remain anonymous “for fear of retaliation,” accused him of making “derogatory remarks to staff of certain nationalities,” in particular local Filipinos.

He was also accused of mismanaging the Covid pandemic, abusing his power strike was able to paralyze Metro Manila; Cebu, Angeles City, Pampanga; Malolos, Bulacan; Dagupan City, Pangasinan, and Sta. Rosa, Laguna. to secure his re-election and nepotism.

A few days after the revelations emerged, WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus acknowledged the organisation had been aware for several months of the concerns and had launched an investigation.

The UN agency has not revealed any details from the investigation, but did announce last August that Kasai had been put on leave and temporarily replaced by WHO number two Zsuzsanna Jakab.

Unlike other UN agencies, WHO’s regional directors are quite powerful with a lot of autonomy. They are elected by member states in the region they govern, before being confirmed by the full membership. AFP gio Ortiz-Luis, likening it to the pandemic lockdowns.

The DOTr also said it is eyeing an additional budget from the national government to increase the equity subsidy for drivers by P100,000 to help them purchase new e-jeepneys for the PUV modernization program. This would bring the total subsidy to P260,000.

Valbuena earlier took a swipe at Vice President and Education Secretary Sara Duterte for describing their protest action as “communist-inspired.”

“That would just be fine if you want to red-tag us, it is their right to voice (their opinion) but they must have the concrete evidence (to show),” he said.

Valbuena also contradicted government claims that the transport strike had a minimal effect.

He said the first day of the transport

“It was successful at 80 percent not only here in the National Capital Region but also in the provinces,” he said.

Manibela and other transport groups objected strongly to the phaseout of the traditional jeepneys and the mandatory consolidation of franchises under the government’s public utility vehicle (PUV) modernization program.

On Tuesday, the Employers Confederation of the Philippines (ECOP) warned that economic losses may about to more than P1 billion a week if the strike intensifies.

“People are confined to their homes especially students due to lack of transportation while employers take to shuttling their workers, which is an added cost to them,” said ECOP president Ser- ing to implement a four-day in-person work week while the work-from-home (WFH) scheme will be done every Friday, Diokno said.

(DOE) is planning to implement daylight saving time within its agency to save electricity and promote energy efficiency.

He said this will be part of the government’s short-term interventions to mitigate high inflation in the country.

Diokno said this proposal was presented before President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. during a Cabinet meeting at Malacañan Palace earlier in the day.

“We also presented to the President that it’s important to address energy because there are complaints that energy cost in the Philippines is expensive,” he said.

“One of the proposals to be carried out by the DOE is to implement adjusted office hours. They will start at 7 am and end at 4 pm so this is what you call daylight saving time,” he added.

The Energy department is also eye-

The Philippines first implemented daylight-saving scheme during the 1973 global oil crisis that led to severe power outages.

“We did this before during the energy crisis. I’m wondering why we did not do this sooner. We should have addressed this before. Because we cannot influence the prices of supply, but we can do something on the demand side,” he said.

Should the DOE experiment be successful, Diokno said the daylight-saving time and the four-day in-person work week plus one day WFH setup will be adopted in other government agencies as well.

Although the private sector will not be required to implement the same working hours, he said they might also be encouraged to do the same.

“We cannot mandate the office hours for the private, but mostly government agencies. But the private sector may follow suit. Going to work earlier is a good thing, right? You can avoid traffic. You go early and then you go back earlier also,” Diokno said.

“It’s very critical that the Department of Transportation (DoTR) address this issue,” he said, noting how disorganized the agency appeared.

He said that even the President admitted that the PUV modernization plan is still lacking finer points, which only strengthens the impression that the initial talks were not well considered.

ECOP said it sympathizes with the jeepney drivers who only depend on driving for their living expenses and called on the government not to limit its perspective on how to manage transportation issues, particularly on the phaseout of jeepneys.

Earlier, President Marcos said that while he sees the need to modernize PUVs, proper program implementation is necessary.

The DOE also proposed to keep the default temperature setting of air-conditioning units at 25 degrees Celsius, he added.

“We will lower the default temperature, I don’t know the temperature here now, but we’re going to keep the default temperature setting to 25,” the Finance chief said.

Asked how much electricity would be saved from daylight-saving time and setting a lower temperature for air-conditioning units, Diokno said: “I cannot answer you that, but I’m sure it’s going to be substantial.”

During the Cabinet meeting, Diokno and other Cabinet members updated Marcos on the economic situation in the country.

“They learned that we are calling for help. We are inviting those who want to participate to help the Filipino people to address the oil spill. Support for the cleanup operations could be in the form of human resources,” Abu said.

The spillage has reached the provinces of Antique and Palawan and could reach Romblon, the PCG said.

It might even reach the world-famous Boracay Island, warned Sen. Francis Tolentino, as he questioned how the PCG would contain or stop the spread of oil.

In a privileged speech delivered Monday night, Tolentino said the PCG is the responsible agency to control the pollution in the country’s territorial waters.

Although the PCG already created the National Oil Spill Contingency Plan (NOSCP), due to its lack of resources, its actions to avert the spread of oil were limited, the senator said.

Meanwhile, the Department of Health on Tuesday issued guidance after several residents of Oriental Mindoro fell ill.

DOH officer-in-charge Maria Rosario Vergeire, during a media forum, said vulnerable groups had to be relocated to a safer area.

“Among those who live within 100 meters (of the shore), the elderly and those with respiratory problems should be relocated. They should stay with relatives who live farther away,” Vergeire said.

“Those within 100 meters of the affected area cannot drink their water. They have to be supplied with safe water by the local government. Those within 100 meters cannot use just surgical masks. We should give them industrial masks,” she added.

Also, the chairman of the House of Representatives Committee on Natural Resources sought an inquiry into the sinking of Motor Tanker (MT) Princess Empress last February 28 in the waters off Naujan, Oriental Mindoro, spilling 800,000 liters of industrialized fuel.

Another vessel rescued the 20 crew members on board.

In filing House Resolution 829, Cavite Rep. Elpidio Barzaga Jr., the panel’s chairperson, wants his committee to investigate, in aid of legislation, the oil spill which has affected 10 municipalities in Oriental Mindoro.

“Additionally, the oil spill might affect 20,000 hectares of coral governor gave information that could lead to the mastermind.

“We got material information from the arrested suspects that we could use to possibly identify the mastermind,” Fajardo said.

DOJ spokesperson Mico Clavano said the suspects made remarks alleging a middleman and a mastermind, but said these were still “premature.”

“There are some statements that lead up already to a middleman and a mastermind but these are statements that are too premature to even put a weight on because it is too early in the case. We have to really get back to the investigat-

National statistician and civil registrar general Dennis Mapa said in an online briefing that among the 13 commodity groups, “transport was the sole driver of the downtrend of the overall inflation during the month, recording a 9.0 percent inflation rate in February 2023 from 11.1 percent inflation in January 2023.”

Mapa cited the lower prices of diesel and gasoline for the month, which contributed to the decline in inflation in the transport index.

In contrast, nine commodity groups showed higher inflation rates which includes food and non-alcoholic beverages, 10.8 percent; alcoholic bev- ing room,” he said. erages and tobacco, 11.0 percent; clothing and footwear, 4.8 percent; furnishings, household equipment and routine household maintenance, 6.2 percent; health, 4.0 percent; information and communication, 0.8 percent; recreation, sport and culture, 4.4 percent; restaurants and accommodation services, 8.1 percent; and personal care, and miscellaneous goods and services, 5.3 percent.

“We trust that the NBI will be able to extract as much information as they can so we can complete the story,” Clavano added.

In an earlier video post on Facebook, Teves said he was abroad for stem cell treatment at the time of the attack and that he would not benefit from Degamo’s death.

“If I had a plan or the capability to do this, I would have done it before the elections. What could have been my motive for this? Neither my brother nor I would benefit from this,” Teves said.

Teves’ brother Pryde was unseated by the Commission on Elections (Comelec) after a recount, which paved the way for Degamo to sit as provincial governor.

Mapa said food inflation at the national level slowed down to 11.1 percent in February 2023, from 11.2 percent in January 2023. In February 2022, food inflation rate was at only 1.1 percent.

Mapa said the dip in food inflation was brought about by the lower year-on-year growth in the index of vegetables, tubers, plantains, cooking

Teves, however, has yet to comment on the three counts of multiple murder raps filed against him and three other people by PNP Criminal Investigation and Detection Group and four surviving family members of the victims in the 2019 attack.

Levito Baligod, lawyer of the complainant, said there are eight more counts of murder that will be filed in the near future.

Baligod also confirmed that witnesses have come forward and are ready to testify against Teves. One of the witnesses said that he was part of the “assassination team” financed by Teves, Baligod said.

Included in the complaints were the alleged secretary of Teves, identified as “Hannah Mae,” Richard Quadra, Jasper bananas and pulses.

The 8.6 percent registered in February was within the central bank’s forecast range of 8.5 percent to 9.3 percent of the month.

Balisacan said the government will need to recalibrate its strategies to alleviate the impact of higher commodity prices on consumers.

“We must rethink our strategies to combat rising food prices. The country’s current high inflation is largely driven by domestic, supply-side constraints,’ Balisacan said.

He said agricultural imports were ill-timed and food supplies have been inadequate. He said the solution is to get to the root of the problem, including fixing the bottlenecks along all segments of the agricultural value chain.

Tanatan, Alex Mayagma, and Rolando

Pinili also known as “Inday.”

Asked about the timing of cases, Baligod said that they have been building the cases for a long time and it was just a coincidence that another assassination has occurred.

The complaint stated that the victims who were all shot in the head were identified as Miguel Lopez Dungog, a former board member of the 3rd District of Negros Oriental; Lester Pialgao Bato; and Pacito Retes Libron.

Dungog was killed on March 25, 2019 in front of Siliman Medical Center in Dumaguete City, while Bato was gunned down on May 26, 2019 in Sitio Labugon in Barangay Nagbo-alao in Basay municipality.

Libron was shot dead on June 23, 2019 proved the recommendation of the Pag-IBIG Fund Management to defer the hike in the monthly contributions of its members in 2023.

This affirms pronouncements made by the agency earlier this year and moves the implementation by one year to January 2024.

The deferment also applies to the share of their employers, Pag-IBIG said.

“We recognize that many of our members and employers are still in the midst of recovering from financial challenges arising from the effects of the pandemic on the economy,” Acuzar stated.

“After consulting with our stakeholders, we have officially approved the deferment of the increase of PagIBIG members’ monthly contributions for another year.” in Bgy. Malabugas in Bayawan City.

“This is in line with the call of President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. to alleviate the financial burden of our fellow Filipinos due to the prevailing socio-economic challenges brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic,” Acuzar said.

In 2019, Pag-IBIG officials approved the increase of its members’ monthly contributions after obtaining the concurrence of stakeholders to implement a planned contribution increase in 2021.

The PNP-CIDG reported to PNP Chief Gen. Rodolfo Azurin Jr. that last Saturday, a 46-year-old confessed “hitman” personally appeared before the CIDG headquarters in Camp Crame to give his sworn statements regarding the three murder cases.

The witness, who is now under police protection, claimed he was part of a group of motorcycle-riding gunmen who killed Dungog. The man said he drove one of the three getaway motorcycles used by the killers.

In his sworn statement, the witness said it was Teves who ordered the killing of Dungog and that it was the latter’s secretary who gave them P50,000 as part of their “operational expenses” for the hit job.