IN BRIEF

Solon to prospective parents: Go for adoption

REP. Paul R. Daza of Northern Samar on Wednesday urged hopeful parents to consider adoption.

Daza made this call to hopeful parents as the Omnibus Guidelines on the Domestic Administrative Adoption and Alternative Child Care Act (RA 11642) were launched Wednesday. RA 11642 mandates that the adoption process of all adoption cases (nonrelative, relative within 4th degree of consanguinity or affinity and cases of adult adoption) to become purely an administrative proceeding.

formation before they invest. It will increase trans- parency,” Salceda said in a statement.

Salceda said the final version which was sent to the President is silent about public listing, but it implies it. “I hope for a more explicit plan of action in the implementing rules and regulations. This can’t be just another GOCC,” Salceda added.

Salceda said that listed companies are “subject to stricter disclosure standards. That is why, in the House version, we expressly discussed and envisioned eventual public listing. It was in all the presentations. It was in all the discussions. And we believed it to be a very strong safeguard.”

Salceda added the other corporate safeguards, “including that independent directors be a third of all board members, were designed to prepare MIF for public listing. Even companies with legislative franchises are required to list publicly.”

Salceda also said that the MIF could “improve the lackluster performance of the Philippine Stock Exchange Index”

Former senate president and justice secretary Franklin M. Drilon meanwhile emphasized the clear and explicit prohibition set by Congress, which strictly prohibits state-run pension and insurance funds from investing in the MIF.

“The intention is crystal clear. Funds held in trust by the government, through these GOCCs, cannot be invested in the MIF,” Drilon stressed. “The prohibition is absolute and leaves no room for ambiguity,” he added. He cited the specific provisions outlined in the proposed measures, including Section 6, paragraph 2 and Section 12, which explicitly prohibit government agencies, GOCCs, and pension funds from investing in the MIF. Macon Ramos-Araneta CYAN MAGENTA YELLOW BLACK

“Through RA 11642, we are correcting age-old problems in adoption—which typically took years to resolve. The previous law, RA 8552 (Domestic Adoption Act of 1998), required a set of procedures—while founded on good intents—that often lead to emotional and financial strains on parties involved, not to mention clogging of cases in courts,” the solon highlighted. Maricel V. Cruz

Gatchalian: VAT refund to lure more tourists

IN yesterday’s Senate Ways and Means Committee hearing, Senator Win Gatchalian said the main goal of a VAT refund mechanism is to attract more tourists.

Conceding that the national revenue will be affected by giving tax incentives to non-resident tourists, Gatchalian said the country stands to gain more from increased tourism foot traffic.

Earlier, the budget department said the country will lose P4 billion if the VAT exemption on “shopping” non-resident tourists will be implemented.

Gatchalian said he was surprised that in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations region, we are the only country without a VAT refund mechanism.

STANDSTILL TRAFFIC. Heavy tra c was seen along Edsa-Cubao (southbound) in Quezon City due to a hit-and-run accident resulting in the temporary closure of two southbound lanes. An unidenti ed motorcycle rider reportedly died in the said incident. Manny Palmero

Red Cross mobilizes to send aid to residents affected by Mt. Mayon

PHILIPPINE Red Cross (PRC) chairman Richard J. Gordon on Wednesday directed the PRC to immediately send assistance to some 10,000 residents living within six kilometers of the permanent danger zones of Mayon Volcano in Albay, which is showing imminent signs of a major eruption.

The Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology raised the alert for Mayon Volcano to level 3, signifying “increased tendency towards a hazardous eruption.”

Gordon convened his team before dispatching the humanitarian caravan. He says the move, which is part of a wide scale humanitarian caravan launched by the PRC in view of the Mayon situation, reflects the organization’s preparedness and immediate response.

“PRC is always ready and prepared to help,” Gordon said, adding that they have tapped RC143 volunteers in Albay, besides their staff, to extend need support on the ground. Gordon, a Red Cross volunteer for 54 years, has been at the helm of PRC since 2005.

Upon Gordon’s instruction, PRC sent four tankers with five water bladders, two water filtration units and tap stands, for food trucks, two Travis multi-purpose vans with health supplies, three trucks with 2,500 sleeping and hygiene kits, and a 6X6 truck carrying 2,500 jerry cans from PRC’s warehouse in Metro Manila, Subic, and PRC Albay chapter, to augment available assets already in Albay. The water tankers will ensure the provision of drinking water at the evacuation centers as sulfur dioxide and other chemicals from volcanic ashes may pollute water sources.

PRC is known as the foremost humanitarian in the world that is able to respond first in countless rescue and similar operations. Gordon has led many such missions over the years.

Gordon said preparations of this kind are unusual for PRC. “We are always ready for any situation. In times of crisis, it is always better to be overprepared, and that is why we are sending this humanitarian caravan as early as now. We want to ensure that logistics are pre-positioned should the Albay situation turns to worse. “PRC is always guided by the principles of 4Ps: Predict, Plan, Prepare, and Practice.”

Meanwhile, PRC secretary-general Dr. Gwendolyn T. Pang organized the PRC team at the soonest time possible.

“Our team is prepared and we already moving as early as now to ensure that no one will be displaced,” she said. “Our volunteers and staff in Albay and Batangas, stand ready to assist.”

He said this will also compensate the additional shopping and spending of tourists. The hearing tackled Gatchalian’s proposed bill which provides that P3,000 should be the minimum required shopping spending to qualify in the VAT refund.

Macon Ramos-Araneta

already collected P10m fine vs. Grab’

THE Land Transportation Franchising and Regulatory Board (LTFRB) on Wednesday denied a claim that it has not yet collected the P10-million fine imposed on then ride-hailing app Grab Philippines.

“There is absolutely no truth to the claim that the LTFRB is a coddler of wrongdoing. The claim that Grab has not yet paid the P10-million fine has no iota of truth and is absolutely preposterous. We already collected the fine, and we have a copy of the receipt to prove it,” chairman Teofilo Guadiz III said in a statement.

He also denied that the LTFRB is “lenient with Singapore-registered Grab but strict with locals.”

“Throughout the years, the agency has remained strict in imposing public land transportation laws and other policies and regulations and does not favor anyone,” he stressed. Rio N. Araja

THIS early, politics has become the useless topic of the political “marites.”

After online surveys like newbie Tangere came up with a little-noticed survey on would-be senatorial candidates for the midterm elections, Arnel Ty who is an LPGbusinessman cum politician, commissioned old-timer SWS to come up with findings on two items: one, a survey on the 2025 senatorial race, and next, public response to the question of who would be the “best leader to succeed PFRM Jr. as president in 2028”.

The field work was done from April 15 to 18 with the usual 1,200 respondents randomly selected nationwide.

It is roughly 18 months before candidates for 12 seats in the Senate file their COCs with the Comelec.

It will be more than four years from the research before candidates for president file the same.

As a look-see into potential senatorial candidates with high name recall and their current acceptability is concerned, the survey presents an early indicator, though a lot of things can yet happen between now and October 2024.

The SWS senatorial survey is puzzling, in the sense that huge gaps among the personalities’ voter preferences are concerned.

Pacquiao and Revilla lead Tito Sotto, Bong Go and Manny Villar considerably, the next batch being Lapid, Bato and Imee Marcos with near numbers, and Erwin Tulfo, PRRD, Lacson and Pia Cayetano hogging the last four slots with almost similar numbers.

Because the gap between the 12th slot (Pia) and the 13th (Isko) and everybody else is too big, SWS lumped them together as getting the 13th to 31st probable ranking.

Then again, PRRD is not running for senator. The man has retired gracefully, and it is not in his character.

Manny Villar, according to two senators, were told by Sen. Cynthia, whose term limits end in 2025, that her husband will not seek to replace her, and would instead concentrate on the family business empire, while she runs for mayor of Las Pinas against her niece, the incumbent.

Re-electionist Francis Tolentino per SWS at this time is at number 20, but the Blue Ribbon Committee is a high profile perch from which, properly handled, he is likely to be re-elected.

Tito Sotto is likely to run, and so is the Pacman, while Ping Lacson and Gringo Honasan, of the so-called “macho bloc,” are still in retirement mode. But then again, politics is a “fever in the blood.”

In short, “masikip” ang senatorial chances for newcomers and those previously rejected by the electorate. There are seven reelectionists plus quite a number of re-runs.

What is more talk of the “marites” is the unaided look-see at an election that is a little less than 1,800 or so days away.

To begin with, 41 percent of SWS respondents do not know who they would prefer, or are waiting for the tea leaves to settle in their cup of choice.

28 percent prefer the vice-president if elections were held now, with her stronghold among the Mindanao and Bisaya voters holding forth.

Second-placer Sen. Raffy Tulfo, distant at 11 points, is the man to watch. He scores respectably in the double digits in NCR and Balance Luzon.

Leni Robredo maintains his Bicol and Western Visayas voters, for now. Everybody else with low single digits will have four years to show their wares, or settle for the vice-presidency with Inday Sara.

Raffy Tulfo is himself a Mindanaoan, although for far too long, a resident of NCR.

Sen. Imee would be an all-female tandem with the vice-president, but then again, there have been so many “firsts” in our contemporary political history, so nothing should come as a surprise in October 2025, or even the “substitution” date, should Comelec yet allow it, which I hope not.

Is there a highly performing, nationally known mayor or governor at this point, who may have moist eyes on the presidency?

At the moment, there is no one in the horizon. Perhaps the feisty Cebu governor, Gwen Garcia, but her daughter, DOT Sec. Frasco’s BFF is no less than Inday Sara.

By Dr. Gem Mutia

IT HAS been almost 10 years since the use of medical marijuana has been pushed in the Philippines but many still do not understand this advocacy.

Millions have been benefiting in many other countries, but here many are still at a loss, including some medical organizations that oppose many bills filed in Congress seeking to legalize the use of medical cannabis.

Based on past House committee hearings and public forums, many oppositionists did not change their mind.

Their supposed knowledge is limited to the year 1961.

They said there’s no need to draft a law for medical marijuana use as there’s