Zelensky in Berlin; Ukraine readies offensive

UKRAINE’S President Volodymyr Zelensky held talks Sunday with his German counterpart at the start of his first visit to Germany since Russia’s invasion, with Berlin offering emphatic support in the form of a huge new military package.

“Already in Berlin,” Zelensky wrote on Twitter. “Weapons. Powerful package. Air defense. Reconstruction. EU. NATO. Security.”

Zelensky’s trip comes as Kyiv is preparing a much-anticipated counter-offensive and follows a day of meetings in Rome with Italian leaders and Pope Francis.

Ukrainian forces have been training a new contingent of forces and stockpiling Western-supplied munitions and hardware that analysts say will be key to reclaiming territory cap - tured by Russia.

Once accused of reticence in supplying military gear to Ukraine, Germany has since become a major contributor of tanks, rockets and anti-missile systems.

Zelensky was greeted by President Frank-Walter Steinmeier at the Bellevue Palace where he signed the guestbook before the pair headed into talks.

The Ukrainian leader’s schedule for Germany has not yet been officially confirmed but he is expected to meet Chancellor Olaf Scholz later Sunday.

He may also head to the western German city of Aachen, which this year is awarding him and the Ukrainian people the Charlemagne prize – an honor awarded for efforts to foster European unity.

Bild daily said Zelensky’s flight to Aachen on a German government plane would be secured by the air force.

Scholz, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki are due to attend the ceremony in Aachen. AFP villages” across the country on Sunday, and announced a return to campaigning on Wednesday for immediate elections.

For months, the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party leader has waged a campaign of defiance against the military. His arrest on Tuesday came just hours after he was rebuked for claiming senior officials were involved in an assassination attempt against him last year. AFP

Speaking by containers acting as improvised polling stations, Aylin said the earthquake – and the state’s inadequate response to the emergency – reaffirmed her choice in the race between two presidential frontrunners, Erdogan and his secular rival Kemal Kilicdaroglu.

“The state didn’t come to our aid. They came three or four days afterwards,” added the architecture student, who thinks support for the conservative Erdogan in Antakya’s Hatay province will “fall a lot.”

Semras recalled the images of dead babies lying in the rubble, some of whom perished due to the cold temperatures, and said the “catastrophe” would affect the polls.

Medical worker Deryer Deniz, 35, has lived in cramped conditions in a tent since the tragedy, and thinks this year’s elections “are much more important.” AFP

Cat. 5 cyclone hits Myanmar, Bangladesh

CYCLONE Mocha began to crash ashore at the Bangladesh-Myanmar border on Sunday, Bangladesh’s weather office said, uprooting trees and bringing driving rain to a region home to hundreds of thousands of Rohingya refugees.

Packing winds of up to 195 kilometers (120 miles) per hour Mocha hit between Cox’s Bazar, where nearly one million Rohingya refugees live in camps largely made up of flimsy shelters, and Myanmar’s Sittwe, the office said.

The US Joint Typhoon Warning Center earlier said Mocha was packing winds up to 140 knots, or 259 kph, equivalent to a category 5 hurricane on the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Wind Scale.

“Our camp houses, which are constructed with bamboo and tarpaulins, can be blown away in soft, light winds,” Mohammad Sayed, 28, told AFP from Nayapara refugee camp in Bangladesh.

“The schools, which are designated as cyclone shelters... are not strong shelters that can withstand the winds of a cyclone. We are scared.”

“The wind is getting stronger at the moment,” rescue worker Kyaw Kyaw Khaing told AFP earlier from Myanmar’s Pauktaw, about 25 kilometers inland from Sittwe, and where he said around 3,000 people had arrived to seek shelter. AFP

By Othel V. Campos

INTERNATIONAL visitor arrivals in the Philippines

breached the 2-million mark as of May 2, reflecting the rebound of the global travel and tourism industry, data from the Department of Tourism showed over the weekend.

Tourism Secretary Christina Frasco said the country recorded 2,002,304 international visitor arrivals from Jan. 1 to May 12, 2023, exceeding the 2022 full year target of 1.7 million foreign visitors.

“Notwithstanding our challenges and

Grab says cancellation fees have LTFRB approval

GRAB Philippines said over the weekend the complaints over the P50 charge on canceled rides are “isolated” as the cancellation fee was approved by the Land Transportation Franchising and Regulatory Board.

“Over the past two weeks, we have received feedback from five passengers regarding Grabcar P50 cancellation fee. We want to assure the public that these feedback are isolated occurrences, and that they can always rely on Grab to provide a fair, safe and efficient platform for their mobility needs,” Grab said in a statement.

“After doing an investigation, we can confirm that there have been no deliberate efforts from our driver-partners to take advantage of passengers, and misuse the Grab Cancellation Fee Policy to their advantage,” it said. Grab said the fee kicks in when a passenger cancels after a five-minute grace period had lapsed. “The fee is intended to directly compensate drivers - not Grab, who have already started traveling towards the designated pick-up point,” it said.

Grab said the cancellation fee was approved by the LTRB in 2021, under the MC 2020-028. This measure was put in place to encourage responsible usage of ride-sharing services and enhance the overall experience for both passengers and drivers.

Darwin G. Amojelar

Stocks to move sideways on improving economy

LOCAL stocks are expected to move sideways with an upward momentum this week on the back of improving macroeconomic conditions.

Analysts said the continued decline in inflation rate, the strong first-quarter economic performance and the overall positive firstquarter earnings results of listed companies are among the factors boosting investor sentiments.

The downtrend in consumer prices is also implying that there’s room for the central bank to pause monetary tightening, they said.

“The local Monetary Board meeting this week is widely expected to follow this dovish trail, seeing as PH inflation tracks global price cooling; a lower 25 basis points hike is floating around the street, but a pause is totally not out of the table,” online brokerage firm 2TradeAsia.com said. The Monetary Board’s next policy meeting is set on May 18.

Analysts said despite improving economic situations, profit takers would be quick in cashing in on gains to take advantage of the short rally. Investors are also expected to remain cautiously optimistic as downside risk drivers such as inflation and interest rate are expected to be less challenging in the second half of the year.

Jenniffer B. Austria

Developers want higher socialized housing threshold

A GROUP of developers asked the Board of Investments to adjust the threshold on socialized housing projects to P4.2 million from P2.4 million, following the unabated increase in construction and labor costs over the last 10 years.

Subdivision and Housing Developers Association Inc. president Leonardo Dayao said the proposed threshold is aligned with recommended ceiling proposed by the National Economic and Development Authority at P4.28 million in order for developers to keep their prices within the affordable limits of consumers.

“In fairness to the BOI, they are receptive in reviewing our petition. Right now, the price ceiling for incentives, in terms of housing, is P2 million, but we are proposing a much higher ceiling of P4.2 million. It can be reasonably concluded that keeping the threshold for mass housing at the P2 million is no longer reflective of the current indices, and the rising costs of construction materials, labor, and land,” he said during the launch of the Philippine Furnitures Furnishings Market 2023.

Developers said that comparing the prices from 2018 to 2022, wholesale prices of construction materials increased by an average of 14 percent, based on the Construction Materials Wholesale Price Index. Along with the increase in the cost of construction materials is the rise in the cost of labor and the zonal values of residential areas in highlyurbanized cities, they said. Othel V. Campos difficulties that our country has faced, a pandemic and the various calamities that come into our shores, the good news is that this has done nothing to break the Filipino spirit or to diminish the beauty of the Philippines,” she said.

South Korea delivered almost a quar- ter of the total number of visitors in the Philippines with 487,502; followed by the United States with 352,894 or 17.62 percent; Australia with 102,494; Canada with 98,593; and Japan with 97,329.

Rounding out the top 10 tourism markets for the Philippines are China with 75,043 visitors; Taiwan with 62,654; the United Kingdom with 62,291; Singapore with 53,359; and Malaysia, 36,789.

The DOT said inbound tourism also generated P168.52 billion in receipts from January to April, or 782.59 percent higher than P19.09 billion achieved in the same period last year.

Frasco said the DOT is optimistic about the Philippines being a tourism powerhouse in Asia.

“We are at the cusp of the massive success of tourism in the Philippines.

You can feel it, you can hear it, you can see it, it’s our time Philippines, it’s our time to become Asia’s leading tourism powerhouse, and with your help, we can achieve just that,” Frasco said.

The DOT is keeping its 4.8-million target arrivals for 2023.

The United Nations’ World Tourism Organization said its barometer shows that the sector’s swift recovery continued into 2023, with international arrivals reaching 80 percent of pre-pandemic