IN BRIEF

BI: Visa extension process shortened

APPLYING for a visa extension at the Bureau of Immigration will only take 10 to 15 minutes from the previous one-day processing, according to an immigration official.

“The Philippine Visa extension application process normally takes one day to one week from the date of submission of documents in person, but with the new system, a foreigner wishing to extend his stay in the country will only take 2 minutes, but because one has to queue for payment, it will take a total of 15 minutes,” BI Visa extension chief Raymond Remigio said.

He said that Chinese nationals topped the list of foreign visitors that usually apply for a visa extension followed by Koreans. The rest came from European countries. Vito Barcelo

Mayor Belmonte vows to address water woes

Honest cabbie praised for returning wallet with P30k cash

By Joel E. Zurbano

AIRPORT authorities in General Santos on

Wednesday praised an honest taxi driver after he returned the P30,000 cash owned by an overseas Filipino worker (OFW) he picked up at the airport.

Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines - General Santos International Airport Manager Joel Gavina commended Anselmo

Dutaro Rodemio, an airport-accredited taxi driver, who returned a lost wallet containing the cash money and bank cards of his passenger, Robert Cutamora Laurel.

Laurel arrived at the airport via Philippine Airlines flight PR 453 from Manila to General Santos around 11:30 am on July 10 and boarded the taxi driven by Rodemio.

When he saw the wallet in his taxi, Rodemio immediately drove back to where he transported Laurel to return the lost valuables.

“Mr. Laurel expressed his gratitude to Mr. Rodemio and rewarded him with cash for his display of honesty. General Santos Airport Manager Gavina shared that the value of honesty is still indeed surfacing among airport workers, which include accredited airport taxi drivers,” said CAAP spokesperson Eric Apolonio.

“During the courtesy visit of Mr. Laurel and Mr. Rodemio at the office of General Santos Airport Manager, the former again expressed his appreciation to Mr. Rodemio, and gave him another cash reward,” he added. Apolonio said the honest taxi driver is set to be given recognition during CAAP - General Santos Airport’s flag raising ceremony Monday next week.

Miriam College to host UNESCO confab

By

Rex Arcadio

R. San Diego II

MIRIAM College in Quezon City will host the 22nd UNESCO-Asia Pacific Network for International Education and Values Education (APNIEVE) Philippines National Convention from July 20 to July 22.

Peace, human rights, democracy, gender equity, and sustainable development issues will take center stage during the event, which will be conducted onsite and online, organizers said.

The convention is also expected to draw community development agencies, educators, guidance counselors, and other members of the academe from both public and private schools.

According to Ma. Lourdes Quisumbing-Baybay, UNESCO-APNIEVE Philippines president, the conference is inspired by the UNESCO International Day of Education theme, “Investing in People, Prioritizing Education and Values towards a Sustainable Future.”

APNIEVE’s network in the Philippines receives support from the Philippines National Commission for UNESCO, to conduct a series of teacher training workshops to enhance the competencies of teachers in values education. APNIEVE – Philippines promote inter-cultural understanding, peace, human rights, and sustainable development through acquiring skills for valuing processes, building broad support for peace education, and training various groups of educators in the Philippines.

Referencing the UNESCO’s advocacy, Baybay pointed out that education must be prioritized to accelerate progress towards all the SDGs against the backdrop of a global recession, growing inequalities, and the climate crisis as 2023 marks the mid-point since the UN adopted the 2030 Agenda for people, planet, and prosperity, with a set of 17 interlocked goals.

THE Quezon City government is set to implement various initiatives to save water amid the scheduled water service interruption to affect several of its barangays.

Mayor Joy Belmonte instructed city engineer Dale Perral to install and operate rain harvesting systems on city-owned buildings, including schools.

“This system can store up to 6,000 liters of rainwater, which can be used for various purposes,” she said.

Numerous city villages will experience daily water service interruptions of up to 11 hours starting Wednesday due to the decrease in the water level of Angat Dam in Bulacan.

Perral said the city government also has ongoing and upcoming retention basin projects that could help store up to 200,000 gallons of water. Rio N. Araja

10 towns in Zambales get P6.99b for infra

TEN towns that comprise the Second Legislative District of Zambales received P6.99 billion in allocations in just one year for infrastructure projects like floodcontrol dikes and roads.

Representative Doris Maniquiz, in her “Ulat sa Pangalawang Distrito ng Zambales” on Monday, said the one-year budget was double the infrastructure allocation received by the Second District in the last eight years.

The bulk of the allocations, or P4.46 billion, went to 59 flood-control structures and road dikes designed to protect lowlying areas threatened by perennial flooding, as well as lahar surges during heavy rains, she said.

“These are not your ordinary kind of dikes that simply hold back water,” Maniquiz pointed out. “These are roaddikes that residents will also use to access their farms and other remote areas, as well as to transport local products safely and efficiently.” Butch Gunio

HERE we go again.

So our suspicion this craze over logos was really part of a grand plan, a re-branding, was true after all. It started with LOVE… which we thought was part of the usual practice in the DoT where a new secretary wanted to “own” his or her tourism slogan.

Turns out the first attempt at adopting a new slogan began with a BBM-initialed slogan. But many criticized the plan as plain “sip-sip.”

Then DDB proposed a concept where a tourist was enticing her friend, supposedly a “David,” to see and experience the beautiful Philippine islands, through a “letter” which she signs off as Love, the Philippines.

But DoT decided to remove the comma, and out came LOVE the Philippines, first shown in Cambodia, as revealed by Indonesia’s tourism minister.

Will Bagong Pilipinas succeed in uniting us all towards a common aspiration of what Duterte simplified as ‘a more comfortable life’ for the present generation, and a secure and progressive future for our next generations?

Then, on a big event celebrating the 50th anniversary of the elevation of tourism into Cabinet status, the grand reveal came out.

Giddy about the “successful” event, many in media failed to notice the borrowed screen shots, until someone in DoT uploaded the video, which caught the eye of blogger Sass Rogando Sasot, a diehard Duterte supporter.

What DDB presented as a “mood board,” intended for internal consumption by the client and not as final product, was shown for country and world to marvel at.

Thus, the embarrassment.

Followed soon enough, while embarrassment over LOVE was still in the air, gaming regulator cum practitioner Pagcor came out with its own rebranding, through a new red and blue logo that did away with the green and yellow logo where green hand symbols were catching a ray of yellow good fortune, quite symbolic really.

Once again, everyone and his mother rightfully bashed the new logo, its copy-cat design lifted from the University of Delft in the Netherlands with the light blue color now changed to the favorite red and blue of the former and current president.

I submitted my Monday article early Saturday morning, and missed the “mother of all brands” which was unveiled later in the day.

Later I was informed by a very reliable source that in both LOVE and the Pagcor/Delft logo, the Presidential Adviser on Creative Communications Paul Soriano was involved in the concept and production stages. Now comes “Bagong Pilipinas,” with a soccer ball-stylized red and blue intertwining stripes that suggest unity, and the flag’s yellow sun and stars on top.

According to the official release from PCO, the Bagong Pilipinas logo features three red stripes that represent post-war agricultural and rural development, the post-colonial period, and the current metropolitan development, but you would need to strain your brains to see the connection.

“The two blue stripes represent future goals: a progressive Philippines that leverages technological advancement in pursuing sustainable industrial development,” the press release further says.

Red, blue and yellow, the colors of the flag.

Without the yellow, it would not be unity, n’e c’est pas?

Unity, battle cry of the last campaign, is the only message that ordinary folks will understand out of the soccer ball stripes of red and blue plus the yellow sun.

Which has already been achieved among politicians for in this land of turncoats where every official. save for a handful, revolves around the fount of favors --- the presidency and whoever sits on its throne.

So will the nascent opposition, likely the diehard Dutertistas, adopt the color green, which after all is Inday Sara’s favorite color?

But the not so big reveal that is Bagong Pilipinas seems too much a redux of the post-EDSAvilified Bagong Lipunan, emblazoned everywhere as the battle cry of the martial law administration, complete with a Felipe Padilla de Leon-composed march and the lyrics:

“May bagong silang, May bago nang buhay, Bagong bansa, bagong galaw, Sa bagong lipunan. Magbabago ang lahat, tungo sa pag-unlad, at ating itanghal, bagong lipunan!”

So let us parody that promise of “everything’s turning out roses” in today’s milieu:

“May bago nang buhay” where inflation rules, and food is getting more and more scarce, with “bagong galaw” referring to increased importation of food to counter the inflation.

“Magbabago ang lahat, tungo sa pag-unlad” with the Maharlika Investment Fund being the key to progress towards a New Society, rather, a New Philippines!

How cute!

ES Lucas Bersamin directed every agency of government through Memorandum Circular 24 dated 03 July (prior to Pagcor’s logo mutation) but released only last Friday, to adopt the new “government brand of governance and leadership… focused on implementing an all-inclusive plan for economic and social transformation.”

The press office, recognizing adverse public opinion over the Pagcor and DoT “fiascoes,” assures us no public money was used in the rebranding. Labor of love?

But the bean counters, and who won’t be in a