Chinese envoy cites more than 75k Chinese tourists in PH in 5 months

By Rey E. Requejo

CHINESE Ambassador to Manila

Huang Xilian on Sunday said there were 75,000 Chinese tourists in the Philippines in the first five months of 2023 as the Department of Tourism (DOT) aims to encourage two million by the end of this year.

In a Facebook post, Huang said he takes pride that “Chinese international tourism makes a strong comeback in

Southeast Asia!,” citing the recent announcement of the Thai government that it received one million Chinese tourists from January to May 2023.

“Southeast Asia has been the Chinese people’s top tourist destination since reopening, and have delivered many immediate benefits in the industry and people-to-people exchanges,” the Chinese diplomat stressed.

“In the first five months, the Philippines received 75,000 Chinese tourists, reinvigorating many of the country’s world-class beaches and scenic landmarks,” Huang said.

Earlier, the DOT announced that it is targeting two million Chinese tourists when electronic visas (e-visas) become available by the end of the year.

The ambassador shared that President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. and Chinese President Xi Jinping have agreed “to deepen people-to-people exchanges between our two countries in all respects” during a meeting earlier this year.

“It is hoped that China-Philippine people-to-people exchanges achieve the goals set by the leaders at an early date and even reach greater heights,” Huang said, in his Facebook post.

“Our countries have been working together in the tourism industry, among many other sectors, and I hope it strengthens our relations and lead to greater mutual benefits in the future!,” he said.

By Macon Ramos-Araneta

SPEAKING on National Irrigation Administration’s (NIA) 60th Founding Anniversary, Sen. Cynthia Villar acknowledged the significant impact of the NIA on the country’s agricultural sector.

Villar noted that the NIA has been instrumental in reducing our dependence on rainfed agriculture

This year’s weeklong celebration of the NIA anniversary with the theme “NIA Para sa Progresibong Pilipinas” included exhibits of its milestones, sports competition and the NIA Singing Idol.

“Over the past six decades, she said NIA has played a pivotal role in transforming our agricultural landscape, ensuring a sustainable and reliable water supply to our farmers, and fostering economic growth in rural communities,” said Villar.

By Macon Ramos-Araneta

SENATOR Grace Poe said she has convinced the country’s public utility vehicle (PUV) drivers to seize the opportunity to further hone their skills on the road by taking the “Tsuper Iskolar Program.”

She said the program that may now be availed online. “Similar to a vehicle’s maintenance, there needs to be a constant check on the driver’s competency and awareness on road safety,” Poe said.

“The training will brace our drivers for a lifetime of safer driving,” Peo, the chairperson of the Senate Committee on Public Services, added.

In the 2023 budget, Poe had pushed for the funding of P100 million for the Tsuper Iskolar Program for PUV drivers and another P100 million for the “ExTsuperneur Program” for motorists who may want to learn new skills or livelihoods.

The drivers’ course is being implemented by the Department of Transportation (DOTr) through the Land Transportation Office and the Technical Education Skills and Development Authority.

The entrepreneurship program is under the DOTr in partnership with the Department of Labor and Employment.

The training are being given for free. The senator said the scholarship programs are now made more accessible with the option to apply online. Applicants may also go to the agencies’ regional offices to get into the training.

Halfway into the year, Poe said the implementing agencies should be stepping up efforts to encourage more drivers to get into the programs to hone or develop new skills.

SENATOR Win Gatchalian said while the Mother Tongue-Based Multilingual Education (MTBMLE) policy under the K to 12 Law mandates the use of learners’ first language as the medium of instruction for Grades 1 to 3, some schools end up using regional languages that children are unfamiliar with.

Gatchalian raised this in a committee hearing on the implementation of the MTB-MLE, where he flagged that the realities of teachers and learners on the ground do not reflect the intention of the law.

“Today, we pay tribute to the dedicated men and women who have worked tirelessly to make it a success, and the millions of farmers who have benefited from your services,” she added.

When NIA was established in 1963 through RA 3601, its mission was clearto provide water resources for agricultural purposes, enhance food production, and improve the lives of our farmers.

Through the construction of dams, canals, and irrigation systems, NIA has enabled farmers to cultivate their lands more efficiently, thus increasing crop yields and income.

In the celebration, the senator also reminded the NIA to be ready for the challenges that lie ahead. She pointed out that climate change poses a significant threat to our agricultural sector, with changing rainfall patterns, increased frequency of extreme weather events, and rising temperatures.

Gatchalian pointed out that the current MTB-MLE policy of the Department of Education (DepEd) only covers 19 languages.

The Komisyon sa Wikang Filipino (KWF), however, lists down 130 languages, while the Philippine Statistics Authority’s 2020 (PSA) Census of Population and Housing records 245 languages.

“My point is we’re supposed to start where the children are with 245 languages, but if we go to our schools, there are only 19 languages. That’s a big disconnect. If we stay true to the essence of the law, then we have to be teaching in 245 languages because that’s their mother tongue as enshrined in the law, but we’re only using 19,” Gatchalian said.

Macon Ramos-Araneta

BOTH the Democrats and Republicans, the traditional parties in America’s federal twoparty system of government, are caught in some kind of crossroads in choosing their standard bearers for the forthcoming 2024 elections.

Soon they will begin primaries, although among the Democrats, it looks like it’s all over but the cheering – they will likely renominate incumbent Joe Biden, who will seek a second term as POTUS.

Will the cheering turn into a dirge, with a fumbling, senile-denigrated incumbent tripping all over himself, figuratively and literally, as the campaign rolls on?

This makes the Democrats’ choice of a running-mate for Biden quite important.

Kamala Harris, by the metrics of performance and public acceptance, does not seem to fit the bill as president-inwaiting to Biden who will be 82 years old by the time he takes his second oath in January 2025.

Meanwhile, hard-core Trump loyalists who constitute half of the Republican Party are still betting on resurrecting their Donald, despite a tumultuous presidency capped by a refusal to concede along with an assault upon the US Capitol.

Despite a string of cases, from tax fraud to debauchery to stealing classified documents and bringing these to his Florida aerie, the man, labeled “insane” by his detractors, leads the other presidential wannabes in the Grand Old Party by a mile.

milestone” through poverty alleviation programs.

sheepishly stating that he expected to meet Xi “sometime in the future --- in the near term.”

I am not a geomancer nor a Nostradamus, but expect Xi to bide his time and just await who the next POTUS will be before he makes any further friendly move towards America.

The Second Cold War which recently began will get frostier.

Thus do we all await with anxiety how the American electorate will choose their next president just a year and four months distant.

Meanwhile, we wonder if the Republicans and the Democrats cannot choose among 380 million Americans someone better than Trump or Biden to represent them in the forthcoming electoral battle.

Are there no other choices for these two parties, who at this writing seem hell-bent on making their voters choose between a senile incumbent and an insane former leader aching to come back despite gross misconduct in his time ?

Cannot Biden do a Lyndon Johnson who did not seek re-election in the wake of the disastrous handling of the Vietnam War?

And Trump should just concentrate on his legal woes which could yet see himself in jail, adding more notoriety to whatever legacy he would leave.

That is why foreign policy observers and analysts like Singapore’s Kishore Mahbubani sagely predict in so many words that, in the end, China will win. ***

We’re referring to the declaration by officials of Quezon province, fittingly enough, last June 12, the nation’s Independence Day, that it is now free from the influence of the New People’s Army (NPA).

Local government officials as well as the police and military declared the province had attained “Stable Internal Peace and Security” or SIPS status.

They said this means the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP), the National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP) and the NPA no longer posed a threat to peace and order.

This is a significant development as Quezon province was a stronghold of the NPA in Southern Tagalog from the 1980s to the 1990s, with both print and broadcast media frequently reporting on clashes between government troop and rebels.

While the Quezon police chief clarified that remnants of the NPA may still be present in the province, they are no longer capable of initiating so-called “tactical offensives” against the military.

For Quezon Gov. Angelina Tan, the challenge for the provincial government and local officials is to preserve the peace and make the residents “feel this

She noted that Quezon is the first province in the Calabarzon region to be given SIPS status. Some provinces, she said, had been bestowed that status “through resolutions…but nothing happened in the towns under their jurisdiction.”

Quezon can now enjoy peace and quiet that has eluded its communities for several decades now, and focus instead on economic and social development

Sariaya, a town declared insurgencyfree a few days earlier, was a hotbed of rebel activity in the 1980s.

In fact, the town, which lies at the foot of Mount Banahaw, once served as the base of the NPA Melito Glor Command under Gregorio “Ka Roger” Rosal, the longtime NPA spokesperson who died in June 2011.

On Dec. 13 last year, Macalelon town, part of the area known as the Bondoc Peninsula, became the first Quezon municipality to be declared NPA-free.

Aside from the Bondoc Peninsula, the Polillo-Real-Infanta-General Nakar (PRIN area) in northern Quezon is also considered a former stronghold of the insurgency.

Earlier this year, however, sporadic clashes between government troops and the NPA were still reported in the province.

In January, for instance, the Army and the local police faced a band of NPA rebels in gun battles in San Andres and San Francisco towns.

In March, government forces again clashed with what they believe are NPA remnants in Macalelon.

But since then, there have been no reported battles in the province but only “mass surrenders” of rebels, militia members and their supporters, according to the military.

If that’s the case, then the province can now enjoy peace and quiet that has eluded its communities for several decades now, and focus instead on economic and social development.

motorcycles.

Because the US of A is the world’s constable by the proclaimed “manifest destiny” of a previous leader, expanding the bounds of their sphere of influence beyond their neighborhood and to the entire world, and is thus the military superpower, whoever leads it has become the center of world attention.

The irascible Trump upended the world, which heaved a sigh of relief when Biden won in 2020 amidst the pandemic crisis. But then Russia’s Putin discombobulated the world order early last year, sending paroxysms of turmoil all over the world’s economy and stability beyond Europe.

Meanwhile, tensions continue to rise up between “upstart” China and old hegemon America. The world’s second largest economy built in just 40 years has likewise built an impressive military force in the last 15n years. This in turn has sent shivers down the spine of the constable of the world which would brook no competition.

Our part of the world, and our country in particular due to its geographic location, has become another flash point, with Biden and Xi at loggerheads.

Biden, after sending his secretary of state Anthony Blinken to Beijing probably expected China’s Xi Jinping to treat Blinken with the significance attached to the envoy of the world’s greatest superpower, and was disappointed that Xi gave the guy 30 minutes of his time and simply reiterated China’s intransigence over Taiwan and other issues.

And so in a moment of pique, he used the shooting down of what he termed a “spy balloon” as a “great embarrassment for dictators,” signaling continued confrontation rather than a cooling of tensions which the Blinken visit hoped to achieve.

Stung by the reaction of even US allies to an inappropriate and certainly undiplomatic remark, Biden stuck to his description of the Chinese leader, while

Listening to Sen. Francis Tolentino in a recent Headstart interview by Karen Davila, I am seeing the Afghan “refugee” issue in better perspective.

Aside from moral obligations such as our being a Christian nation which sheltered other nationalities in the past out of humanitarian sympathy, something we mentioned in our article “Please listen to your sister” (Monday, June 19) and our being an original signatory to the UN declaration on human rights, I agree with Sen. Tolentino when he said that the problem was brought about by the seeming secrecy and lack of information on the issue and its ramifications.

Tolentino blames the DFA for this opacity which came to public attention only when the President’s sister, Sen. Imee Marcos, began asking questions.

One point I would like to ask is: why should there be a “processing” center in a foreign country where US consular and immigration officials can “temporarily” house these refugees whose lives may indeed be in danger?

The US is such a huge country with so many areas where they could fly their Afghan allies to, and place them under “restricted” conditions while they vet whether to accept them as immigrants to or get other countries to shelter them.

The reasoning being advanced that the US Embassy in Manila has one of the largest consular staff holds no water. Why not fly their staff to wherever else, expense being of little import to the world’s richest nation?

Why must we help solve the problems created by America in the first place, with their interference in other nation’s affairs and their clandestine support for terrorist and like organizations which later turn out to be their own undoing?

We have far too many problems that demand the full attention of our leaders than get embroiled in this brouhaha.

We are too nice to our former colonial master that they keep taking us for granted.

STRONG pronouncements have been made on the Marcos Jr. administration’s agenda to pursue a green and blue economy and establishing livable and sustainable communities with mandates based on existing laws and new policies to protect the environment, managing risk, and building resilience from the catastrophic effects of climate change.

According to the fact sheet on climate change released during the 2021 United Nations Sustainable Transport Conference, “the transport sector is responsible for approximately one quarter of (global) greenhouse gas emissions” with 95 per cent of the world’s transport energy from fossil fuels.

Hence, there has been a clear trend to shift away from petroleum guzzling vehicles to electric powered transportation modes with Tesla and the biggest brands in the motor vehicle manufacturing industry racing to develop zero emission transports as the world shifts to a green and sustainable economic order.

Establishing the policy framework to transition from a fossil fueled transportation to a zero-carbon emission ecosystem is crucial in managing the systemic infrastructure and socioeconomic disruption that will affect the transportation sector and for that matter, the whole population. Republic Act 11697 or the Electric Vehicle Industry Development Act (EVIDA) enacted in 2022 aims to create an environment that promotes the development of e-vehicles industry.

The Department of Transportation (DOTr), Department of Science and Technology (DOST), Department of Trade and Industry (DTI), Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH), and National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) has been tasked to craft the Comprehensive Roadmap for the Electric Vehicle Industry (CREVI) that would set the guidelines for fiscal and non-fiscal incentives to encourage investors, importers, to develop the industry and for users to shift to e-vehicles.

An important factor in developing this EV roadmap is the current volume and type of vehicles on the road.

Land Transportation (LTO) data revealed during a Senate Blue Ribbon Committee hearing there were over 7.3 million registered

Just observing the daily traffic will give you a good sense of what the masses have chosen to invest their limited resources in motorcycles as the preferred mode of transport for daily commuting.

This is also the same sector that’s driving a surging demand for electric bikes (e-bikes) as a more affordable and eco-friendly means of transport.

CitizenWatch Philippines co-convenor and former congressman Atty. Kit Belmonte had a published statement which sees people going for e-bikes because of the “inadequate mass transportation system, the high cost of fuel, and the desire of an increasing number of Filipinos to do more for the environment are making them look at other options to get themselves from Point A to Point B.”

The investors said the Philippines is the “clear choice” as the next manufacturing hub for its global expansion.

According to LTO Administrative Order 2021-039, e-bikes that fall under Category L1a (maximum speed of 25 kph) and L1b (maximum of up 50 kph) do not require registration or a driver’s license for the users. These are only allowed on local roads but may cross national roads.

Helmets are of course required.

However, as expected with policies that regulate new innovations that disrupt the status quo, there are some regulatory disconnects that need to be rectified.

One of the issues raised by Atty Belmonte is that some e-bike sellers are able to “unlock” the speed limiters of the units which allows drivers to push speeds to even over 50 kph.

“This is a serious safety issue and must be addressed urgently” and “faster vehicles need to be registered and their drivers need to secure licenses,” Atty. Belmonte said.

A quick search on the internet will show you a thriving e-bike market offering a wide selection of models and price points that would match the paying capacity and purpose of prospective buyers. For now, e-bikes are imported, but not for long.

During President Marcos Jr’s US visit, he was witness to the signing of the memorandum of agreement between Ayala’s Integrated Micro-Electronics Inc. (IMI) and Zero Motorcycles to build the country’s first factory to produce electronic motorcycles by next year.

This will create employment for 200 workers and is targeted to produce 18,000 electric motorcycles annually starting 2024.

He also points out an LGU has banned e-bicycles from Boni-Avenue in Mandaluyong City which is a main thoroughfare that links Mandaluyong proper and Pasig City. Being familiar with the area, this ban would force e-bike riders to go on a circuitous route to be able to cross EDSA instead of going through the Boni underpass to Pioneer Ave to Kapitolyo, Pasig City. As transportation is an essential daily utility, people will always find a way to get to where they need to be with or without a responsive regulatory environment.

Before we find ourselves in an even bigger transportation mess, it would be best for our government policy makers, regulators, the e-bike stakeholders, the LGUs, and especially consumer groups, to convene soon and polish up these policies. Ride safe!

ERFURT, Germany—When Marie-Luise

Troebs looks at the doll’s sideboard on her kitchen windowsill, her eyes fill with tears.

It’s one of the few mementos she has left from her childhood home in the former East Germany.

In 1961, when she was 10 years old, Troebs and her family were evicted from the rural border town of Geisa by the Communist authorities.

They were sent to live in the city of Erfurt, 130 kilometers away.

More than six decades on, Troebs finally sees “a glimpse of hope” in her battle for compensation from the government.

Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s party, the Social Democrats, wants to widen the pool of former East Germans classed as “victims” of injustice at the hands of the Communists—and who are therefore entitled to compensation.

There were two major waves of resettlement of former East Germans from the border area towards the centre of the Communist-run DDR, in 1952 and in 1961.

The authorities justified the displacements by saying they needed to make way for infrastructure along the border and remove people considered a threat to order and security in the border area.

Altogether, some 12,000 people living along the border were forcibly relocated.

Around a thousand of them are still alive.

On the morning of October 3, 1961, Troebs and her family came home from church to see several trucks and armed police outside their house.

They were given just a few hours to pack their suitcases.

‘Suddenly we had nothing’

“They led us into the street in front of everyone, as though we were criminals,” a tearful Troebs told AFP.

“My father dwelt until the day he died on what it was we could have done wrong.”

Inge Bennewitz, 82, was a student in Potsdam when her parents were expelled from the village of Doemitz on the banks of the Elbe.

The trauma left “a scar that never healed” in their lives, she told AFP.

In their new home further west in Zoelkow, “there were only two small rooms, no kitchen, and the toilet was in the yard”, she said.

“All of a sudden we had nothing.”

Her family was described as “incorrigible” by a local newspaper.

“I never went to the town center because I was afraid they would spit in my face,” said Bennewitz, who runs a research group on forcibly displaced people.

“Society must repair this trauma or we’ll never find peace,” said Troebs, who heads an association of former East Germans fighting for compensation.

She is campaigning for reparations of 20,000 euros ($21,780) each for the victims.

‘Hurry up’

Germany has been compensating victims of injustices committed under the former East German government since 1992.

These include former prisoners, forced laborers and people separated from their children.

But it does not cover people who were forcibly displaced.

Because they have not been named as a specific group, the process of applying for compensation has been laborious and demands a high burden of proof.

“The events of 1952 and 1961 were a long time ago and the documents from the time are incomplete,” said Evelyn Zupke, the government’s top official in charge of atoning for the injustices of the Communist dictatorship.

Forcibly displaced people have also been excluded from a monthly pension —currently worth 330 euros—paid since 2007 to victims of political persecution in East Germany.

Elected to the post in 2021, Zupke is working with MPs and associations to broaden the scope of the compensation laws.

“I would stress to the politicians that we really must hurry up and honor those displaced persons who are still alive,” said Zupke.

She welcomes the SPD’s initiative and is calling for a bill to be tabled before the end of the year. AFP