Are we off COVID-19?

FEW things are giving us good reasons to cheer up.

and downloadable incident forms (one for adults, another for children).

Other government agencies may use this book for their mandated GAD programs, that per rules and guidelines are well-funded but that are in some agencies not implemented very well due to lack of knowledge on the part of their managers. (Pro tip: get in touch with the Philippine Commission on Women for help designing your GAD programs.)

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For the past several weeks, I have been writing about writing, specifically with regard to learning how to perfect technique and craft through workshops and residencies.

As the summer shines on, more writing classes are being conducted to give students on vacation a chance to attend before school starts.

One such was a masterclass on experiencing and writing short fiction, taught by acclaimed writer and editor Angelo ‘Sarge’ Lacuesta last June 17.

The session was an updated version of the flash fiction workshop he gave at the Dubai Literary Festival last February. Dubbed “The Stories Inside Us,” the class was the first in a series of events hosted by the Yuchengco Museum and yfilms, the museum’s digital arm. “Yfilms and The Yuchengco Museum reached out to me, asking if I would do a seminar or lecture for them,” Lacuesta said.

“I’ve delivered craft and appreciation lectures for a number of years now, and I was happy to do it. It was a great opportunity to do it in such beautiful and inspiring surroundings. And it was especially wonderful to have younger people attend the class. We need to think about the developmental aspect of creative writing.”

Lacuesta, who is also editor-at-large of Esquire Philippines magazine, lectured about storytelling – what it is, how to do it – and used examples from several films to illustrate his key points.

The number of participants went over everyone’s expectations and the event turned out to be a happy success, thanks to the enthusiastic participants—from young writers to internationally published ones—and the inspiring venue.

“Activities like these create spaces for learning and community, especially for younger writers,” Lacuesta said.

Why is storytelling important for the individual, for the community, and for the nation?

“Storytelling lets us understand ourselves and the world around us,” Lacuesta says. “Not only does it allow us to make sense of our personal and social or political situations, but it also drives us to seek our personal truths…

“I like to think that we define the nation when we do any kind of work as Filipinos, and writing is a particularly expressive and personal way to perform work.”

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The Gintong Aklat Awards are back!

Established in 1981 and managed by the Book Development Association of the Philippines (BDAP), the awards are held only every two years and are given to outstanding book publishers.

The purpose of the event is to recognize and encourage the production of books that are of excellent quality in all aspects of bookmaking, from content production (writing and editing), book production (printing, binding, etc.), and book design.

The contest is open to all BDAP members.

The judging of entries in the various categories (see bdap.ph for details) is ongoing.

The awarding ceremony will be held in September 2023 during the Manila International Book Fair.

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One is that coronavirus vaccines may soon be commercially available in the Philippines after the Food and Drug Administration on Monday announced it had granted a certificate of product registration for the Pfizer bivalent COVID-19 vaccine.

“The FDA is pleased to announce the approval of the application and grant of CPR for Toziameran + Famtozinameran (15 mcg/15 mcg)/ 0.3 mL Dispersion for Injection with a brand name, Comirnaty Original/ Omicron B.A. 4-5,” it said in a press statement.

“The FDA has granted the CPR with five years validity after a comprehensive evaluation process, extensive clinical trials, and thorough assessment of all available scientific data and information provided by the vaccine manufacturer and comprehensive evaluation process,” it added.

Pfizer submitted a CPR application under monitored release for their vaccine doses to the FDA in February.

In May, the World Health Organization declared that COVID-19 no longer represented a global health emergency

Their application was evaluated by Taskforce Edward, which was tasked to streamline the approval and evaluation of COVID-19 vaccines. FDA Director General Dr. Samuel Zacate encouraged pharmaceutical firms to apply for the issuance of CPR or market authorization for their vaccine shots.

The Department of Health previously said bivalent vaccines provide protection against the original COVID-19 strain SARS-CoV-2 and Omicron subvariants BA.4 and BA.5.

Earlier this month, the DOH allowed the use of Pfizer bivalent jabs as a third booster dose pending the arrival of COVID-19 biva- lent vaccines in the country.

Last week, the national government officially started giving the doses to healthcare personnel, saying they are among those who will be prioritized for the inoculation as they would need additional protection against the virus.

We believe the FDA when it urged the public to “maintain confidence in the regulatory processes and to rely on accurate information from trusted sources regarding the COVID-19 vaccine.”

“The FDA will continue to prioritize transparency and provide regular updates to keep the public informed,” it said.

Another reason to cheer up is the statement by Health Secretary Ted Herbosa Monday he would recommend lifting the country’s COVID-19 state of public health emergency.

In an ambush interview, Herbosa stressed that COVID-19 no longer posed an emergency and could be treated as any other disease that the Department of Health monitors, like influenza, cough, and cold.

To date, COVID-19 which hit the country in March 2020, has had 4,155,758 confirmed cases of COVID-19 with 66,481 deaths.

In May, the World Health Organization declared that COVID-19 no longer represented a global health emergency.

Anti-drug campaign makes headway

THE good news from Camp Crame, the headquarters of the Philippine National Police is that 27,248 barangays in the country have been cleared of illegal drugs.

This is an accomplishment rate of 76.76 percent since there are 35,536 barangays nationwide identified as drug-affected. There are 42,046 barangays in the country.

The PNP uses the term “drug-cleared” for barangays previously classified as drugaffected but had successfully hurdled the Barangay Clearing Program and declared drug-cleared by the Regional Oversight Committee on Barangay Drug Clearing.

The term “drug-free,” however, is used for barangays that have had no reports of drug activity at all.

Of the drug-cleared barangays, 115 were classified as seriously affected and 12,560 moderately affected. The remaining 14,573 were described as slightly affected.

The regions that registered the highest drug clearance rate are Calabarzon with 97.06 percent followed by Cagayan Valley, 95.55 percent; the Cordilleras, 95.22 percent; Eastern Visayas, 94.52 percent, and Soccsksargen, 89.37 percent.

PNP Chief Police General Benjamin Acorda Jr. has commended government agencies, local officials and communities for helping bring down the number of drugaffected barangays.

“As we continue our fight against illegal drugs, we remain committed to ensuring the safety, security and well-being of every citizen,” he said.

While acknowledging the good progress made by law enforcers in clearing drugaffected barangays, the top cop emphasized the need to stop the drug trade in the remaining 8,288 barangays, 326 of them classified as seriously affected.

At present, Acorda pointed out, 8,288 barangays continue to be affected by drugrelated issues.

These barangays include 326 that were classified as seriously affected, 5,780 as moderately affected, and 2,182 as slightly affected. Hence, law enforcers continue to launch drug-clearing operations on a nation- wide scale.

It is plain to see the police force continues to make headway in the campaign against illegal drugs. If over 27,000 drug-affected barangays out of more than 35,000 have been cleared of illegal drugs, then that represents a significant accomplishment for the PNP.

But it cannot afford to lose its focus.

The police cannot lick the drug problem through an iron hand alone: it should be a whole-of-society effort, with law enforcers, local government units, non-government organizations and ordinary citizens working together to substantially reduce, if not totally eradicate, this social menace.

As a key pillar of the US-Philippines alliance, EDCA supports combined training, exercises and interoperability between the armed forces of the two countries

PNP: Bantag never a police officer

While we’re on the subject of law enforcement, the PNP has clarified, contrary to a statement by a Department of Justice official, that fugitive former jails chief Gerald Bantag was never a police officer.

The Camp Crame Public Information Office issued the statement to correct the claim of the DOJ spokesman that Bantag was a police officer who had a network within the PNP that made his arrest difficult.

“The [PNP] would like to clarify that Mr. Gerald Bantag [was never] a member of the Philippine National Police… He used to be a Bureau of Jail Management and Penology (BJMP) officer before his appointment to the Bureau of Corrections,” according to the PNP Public Information Office.

Based on public records, Bantag was a member of the 1996 Kaagapay Class of the Philippine National Police Academy, but did not enlist with the PNP and instead entered the BJMP, eventually becoming the first four-star general among his batchmates.

“We want to emphasize that, irrespective of one’s rank, stature, or source of commission of any officer, the PNP will arrest any individual who has violated the law. The achievements of our police tracker teams exemplify our record in arresting wanted persons,” the PIO said.

Bantag and his deputy Ricardo Zulueta are wanted for the October 2022 killings of radio broadcaster Percival Mabasa (also known as Percy Lapid) and Cristito Palaña (alias Jun Villamor), an inmate of New Bilibid Prison who is believed to have recruited the hit men who killed Mabasa.

The Las Piñas and Muntinlupa courts hearing the cases issued the warrants of arrest for the two in April, six months after the two personalities were killed. Since the issuance of the arrest warrants against Bantag and Zulueta, tracker teams of the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group have been “working round the clock and at all times in support of the National Bureau of Investigation and other officers of the law to apprehend the fugitives promptly,” the PIO said.

The DOJ and the NBI raised a P2-million reward for any information that could lead to Bantag’s arrest and another P1 million for Zulueta’s.

Will the offer of a bounty for the arrest of the two fugitives lead to the solution of the case and render justice for the brazen killing of broadcaster Percy Lapid?

We’ll have to wait and see.

(Email: ernhil@yahoo.com)

Tabag gears up a vision to recharge Ilokano culture

the new leadership would attain during their two-year term ending in 2025.

rapid urbanization, large-scale migration, industrialization and environmental change.

efforts to improve their craft of writing literary, historical, research and other works;

GUMIL Filipinas President Ariel Sotelo Tabag has laid out a vision as part of an aggressive policy he hopes would be given flesh by members of the association following his inauguration this month as the 15th chief executive of the close-knit group.

The 44-yar-old Tabag, who studied AB Philosophy at the Our Lady Of Angels Seminary in Novaliches, Quezon City, also asked his fellow writers to help him re-energize inactive chapters of the association, which marks 55 years in October this year.

In a speech on June 24 at the Manila Prince Hotel in Ermita, Manila soon after he and other officials were administered the oath of office by the Pinili, Ilocos Norte-born former Press Secretary Herminio Coloma, the book author and multi-awarded fictionist suggested continuing Pasnaan, a workshop for young/amateur Ilokano writers and Innadal, a lecture lecture series for the Ilokano orthography and Ilokano literature in cooperation with different Local Government Units.

Tabag challenged 300 active members of GUMIL Filipinas and other Ilokano writers that their writings focus as well on the protection of the earth and the environment while uniting with others in doing research and writing about climate change.

He presented a 12-point plan he hoped, with 15 other officers with him at the helm,

Speaking in Ilokano throughout, Tabag challenged fellow members of GF to come up with GF-inspired workshops within the chapters, online or in-face for aspiring members of the different chapters.

He asked for their support to continue the tagnawa program, a cooperative effort to produce a desired result, as a brand to produce GUMIL materials from which GF funds may be sourced, and to set up one online and physical shop to manage this.

At the same time, Tabag was clear he wanted to set up mini groups within chapters or individual performers from each chapter to revive the oral traditions of the Ilokanos and reactivate literary fairs and/or festivals to serve as book shops for books produced from northern Luzon.

Old hands in GUMIL Filipinas say literature can be an important tool for creating empathy, allowing people to see and understand the perspectives of those whose experiences may be very different from their own and ultimately creating a society based on empathy and understanding.

Tabag was spot on in his desire to revive oral traditions which include expressions whose domain encompasses an enormous variety of spoken forms including proverbs, riddles, tales, nursery rhymes, legends, myths, epic songs and poems, charms, prayers, chants, songs, dramatic perfor-

Tabag challenged fellow members of GF to come up with GF-inspired workshops within the chapters, online or in-face for aspiring members of the different chapters mances and more. Customs and folklore authorities say oral traditions and expressions are used to pass on knowledge, cultural and social values and collective memory, and they play a crucial part in keeping cultures alive.

They add oral tradition is important in all societies, despite the reliance of some cultures on written records and accounts.

These traditions account for the ways things are and often the way they should be, and assist people in educating the young and teaching important lessons about the past and about life.

Like other forms of intangible cultural heritage, oral traditions are threatened by

Books, newspapers and magazines, radio, television and the Internet can have an especially damaging effect on oral traditions and expressions. Modern mass media may significantly alter or over replace traditional forms of oral expression.

Epic poems that once took several days to recite in full may be reduced to just a few hours and traditional courtship songs that were sung before marriage may be replaced by CDs or digital music files.

With him during the two-year term are six other executive officials and eight members of the Board of Directors, and the immediate past president as ex-officio member, assisted where necessary by three consultants and seven advisers, the latter all former presidents of the association first headed by Sison Mayor Art M. Padua of Pangasinan from 1968 to 1971.

He hopes his term would also see the publication of a refurbished version of the Directory of Ilokano Writers which GF published in 1993 to mark the silver jubilee of the association, compiled by Jose Bragado and Reynaldo Duque (editor: Honor Blanco Cabie).

As the officers belly up to the bar, they have with them GUMIL Filipinas’ main objectives:

To provide a forum in which Ilokano writer can undertake common and cooperative

To enrich Ilokano literature and cultural heritage as phases of the national identity by encouraging the members to concentrate on writing extensively and intensively about the social, economic, cultural and other aspects of growth and development among the Ilokanos through literature, history, research, or the like;

To publish books of poetry, short stories, essays, novels, historical accounts, research and critical studies, and other writings; and

To assist each member in pursuing his/her writing career and in fulfilling his life as a member of Philippines society.

Experts are one in saying literature confirms people’s identity and encourages them to find their own way to verbalize or write about what matters to them. Literature amplifies people’s sense of self, and in doing so, makes it possible for people to live authentically – both in writing and in their spoken words.

Literature, which mirrors the ills and the good things about society, projects the virtues and values in the society for people to emulate.

In its corrective function, literature, according to experts, mirrors the ills of the society with a view to making the society realize its mistakes and make amends. It also projects the virtues or good values in the society for people to emulate.