PH nurses voting with their feet

The downward trend from a high of 8.7 percent in January when onions and sugar reached astronomical highs to June’s 5.4 percent was due to food imports, but these will be more costly in the coming months.

We can expect BSP to employ its usual monetary tool, which is to increase interest rates, the same instrument the US Federal Reserve intends to do.

But that will dampen business credit at a time when the economy needs to grow through investments and expansion after the effects of the threeyear toll caused by the pandemic from which the economy has yet to recover.

Moreover, the private sector, if it will resort to borrowings, will be crowded out by government borrowings, which are sovereign guaranteed. And because the same conditions are worldwide, over-all demand is likely to dampen, and economies might be pushed into recession, at best, and continued decline. So soon after SONA Numero Dos, the economy is raining upon the parade.

Now let’s see how the much ballyhooed pledges from the President’s 14 foreign trips in the last 13 months turn out into real direct foreign investments.

Government can of course spend more, and the P5.7 trillion proposed budget, wisely spent, could spur economic activity.

But then again, most of that will be eaten up by: first, debt payments including interest; second, some 920 billion in congressional insertions, a.k.a. pork barrel entitlements; third, some 260 billion in military pension payments which continue to grow per year; and personnel salaries of a huge bureaucracy along with its unbridled appetite for wasteful spending in its maintenance and operating expenses.

There are proposals for tax adjustments, the latest of which is Joey Salceda’s proposed tax increase on luxury products, and he has enumerated quite a few of those products only the very rich can afford to splurge on.

But who are the biggest spenders on luxury?

His colleagues in Congress and their families, plus contractors most of whom are also politicians or politically connected, so will they shoot themselves in the foot?

Will they control their greed by limiting their pork appetites?

Sources say that senators get a minimum of P2 billion each, which doubles, even triples, depending on “abilidad.” Congressmen, almost 300 of them (excluding the few who dare say “nay”), are assured at least P500 million each, while some get fatter slabs amounting to as much as P5 billion each.

And where do these projects go?

Items where the level of commissions are most difficult to detect, allowing for more greed, such as river dredging, flood control, and slope protection, plus the traditional “farm-to-pocket” or “road to my farm” projects.

Yet every typhoon and low pressure area brings rain that causes rivers to overflow and floods ravaging farms and destroying standing crops, while landslides kill.

Meanwhile, LGU officials most of whom are dynasts along with their representatives in Congress, continue to waste their IRA plus Mandanas incremental revenue on beautification, fiestas to regale the voters, while bloating their local bureaucracies with incompetent favorites.

Because the legislature has control of the purse, and the executive kowtows to them who approve the size of the purse and its apportionment, little is left for much needed infrastructure projects like dams and bridges, for which government hopes the private sector will invest through PPP or privatepublic partnerships. Now figure in high interest rates, inflation, and the cost of doing business in a graft-ridden and highly contentious environment into the equation. None but the favored and well-connected who can twist terms of reference to their designs will participate.

Meanwhile, P14.1 trillion in public debt will become P15.7 trillion or higher by 2024. But then again, our policy makers know that Filipinos, especially the lumpen, the “masa” Erap calls them, do not know how to count beyond a few thousands.

So for the elite, “tuloy ang ligaya” while the poor continue to suffer and the wealth gap continues to grow. Cry for the benighted land and its future, with its brains and brawns leaving the Philippines because it’s so hard to love .

IF YOU are unaware that there’s a nursing shortage in the country, perhaps you have not been to a hospital recently either as a patient or as a visitor.

There, you would have noticed that, unlike before, there are fewer nurses at their stations, or doing routine tasks in hospital rooms.

The stark reality today is many of our nurses would rather leave the country in droves to seek the proverbial green pastures in whatever corner of the globe would accept them, simply because they cannot keep body and soul together with the meager salaries they get from both public and private medical facilities here.

According to the Department of Health, there are about 124,000 licensed and registered Filipino nurses who are jobless, underemployed or doing non-related work in BPO call centers.

A lawmaker wants the DOH to track these nurses down and try to convince many of them who are unemployed to work in government hospitals to address the worsening nursing shortage in the country. Health Secretary Ted Herbosa had earlier

CYBERCIME is on the rise, and we are all targets. According to recently released data from the Cybercrime Investigation Coordinating Center (CICC), cybercrime incidents have spiked by 152 percent with 6,250 cases recorded in the first half of this year. The same lifesaving technology that enables the world to survive the pandemic crisis has become the new weapon of cyber criminals for the commission of traditional crimes.

There is a constant risk of financially motivated attacks such as scams, estafa, swindling, fraud, counterfeiting and forgery.

As netizens and mobile phone users, we are already receiving daily anonymous and creatively crafted messages to deceive us into giving sensitive personal information that will be used to hack into bank accounts or e-wallets.

As these cyber syndicates get more information on the online habits of a potential target, vulnerabilities to a person’s reputation may be exploited for black mail schemes.

So many scandals have become viral and have damaged the personas of public figures.

Viewed by millions, these are often obscene and indecent images that offend a person’s sensitivities and have a damaging effect on society’s moral fabric.

Cybercrime is a national security concern as governments are exposed to espionage activity, sabotage, disruption, and politically motivated attacks.

Terrorist groups have been able to use cyberspace for their recruitment and propaganda activities.

This is a dimension of what is now a digitally dependent global environment that all of society must learn to live with.

Having a safe and trusted digital environment is vital to economic resilience and growth.

As we trek this unstoppable journey toward a systemic and hopefully inclusive digital transformation, we must learn to live in both the physical and digital world where the interconnections of opportunities and risks will pose socio-cultural and governance challenges.

Aligned with our ongoing consumer advocacy in CitizenWatch Philippines, we are honored to be engaged as one of the partners of the CICC to help build an anti-cybercrime consciousness among consumers.

During our MOA signing held last Friday, CICC Executive Director, Undersecretary Alexander K. Ramos said that the partnership aims to reach targeted consumers and empower suggested hiring nursing graduates who failed the board exams amid reports there are an estimated 4,500 nursing vacancies in government hospitals nationwide at present.

The government-accredited national association Filipino Nurses United said a total 29,293 nursing graduates combined passed the last two Nursing Licensure Exams—18,529 in November 2022 and 10,764 in May this year.

It would be interesting to find out how many of them have found jobs here or even abroad, and how many are wasting their expertise on non-nursing work.

One solution to the nursing shortage is them through cybersecurity training and awareness campaigns.

“Partnerships with government is the solution to cybercrimes,” USec Ramos said.

The CICC is working on a National Cyber the proposal of the Commission on Higher Education to offer free review classes in top universities for nursing graduates to help them pass the board exams and increase the number of registered Filipino nurses in both public and private hospitals. year in the Committee on trade and industry, chaired and authored by Albay 2nd District Rep. Joey Salceda, will help boost the creative industry by eliminating unauthorized or pirated content.

The agency said private hospitals have committed to pay for the review of their employees who are non-passers.

It appears only about 50 percent of nursing graduates pass the licensure test.

Thus, CHED wants to hold special review classes for those employed in DOHrun and private hospitals as aides or assistants, so they can pass the licensure test.

Another CHED proposal to address the nursing shortage is the lifting of the 10-year moratorium on the creation of new nursing programs.

In fact, 54 universities have applied to open nursing programs.

CHED is also working with the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority to train health care and health care associates through a certificate or diploma program.

Will all these work and increase the number of our nurses? Maybe.

But will these necessarily keep them working here?

Or would they simply apply for jobs abroad at the first opportunity?

We can’t blame them if they do.

It will empower the Intellectual Property Office of the Philippines to shut down websites sharing copyrighted material. A Senate version authored by Sen Jinggoy Estrada is also pending at committee level and will hopefully move forward.

The Department of Trade and Industry is driving the passage of the proposed Internet Transactions Act to institutionalize mechanisms to protect both merchants and consumer transactions online which would include an online business registry and the implementation of an eCommerce Philippine Trustmark.

Just a few days ago, unregistered SIM cards were supposed to have been deactivated in compliance with the SIM registration law that aims to purge the proliferation of anonymous mobile accounts being used for scam syndicates.

IN TIMES gone by, there was the tuned out belief June and July were the “marriest” month for Filipinos, recidivously romantic by nature –given the influence of the cultures of Madrid and Hollywood.

In recent years, others marched down the aisle in other months – it could have been in summer, in the monsoon or even in December as Christmas lights and sounds took the population on a pleasant, if lifting, spin.

But Catholic Church statistics suggests a decline in the number of Filipinos getting married in church and comparatively they are getting older by the dozen.

Marriage in the Catholic Church, also known as holy matrimony, is the “covenant by which a man and woman establish between themselves a partnership of the whole of life and which is ordered by its nature to the good of the spouses and the procreation and education of offspring.”

It “has been raised by Christ the Lord to the dignity of a sacrament between the baptized.”

Catholic matrimonial law, based on Roman law regarding its focus on marriage as a free mutual agreement or contract, became the basis for the marriage law of all European countries, at least up to the Reformation in the 16th century. The canonical form of marriage began to be

Security Plan wherein fighting fraud will be a top priority.

Indeed, there is a gap in cybersecurity awareness among consumers that needs to be addressed as it is the first line of defense against cyber crime activities.

Surfing the internet and various social media and e-commerce platforms has become very amusing that it’s so easy to be fooled by seemingly innocent clickbaits that may lead to malicious infiltration of one’s device.

Cybercrime actors are able to harness the marketing algorithms and artificial intelligence of e-commerce platforms and post ads that can lead to fraud, counterfeit products, and online piracy sites.

Government is just beginning to understand how incompatible the current policy environment is, and it is good to see reforms are underway to upgrade our laws and regulations to be more responsive with the non-linear and dynamic nature of digital technologies and the fast pace of new innovations.

House Bill 7028 approved earlier this

As of this writing, I am still receiving these SMS messages egging me to click their links with cash incentives in partnership with legitimate banks and e-payment platforms to look legitimate.

The President has made several pronouncements pushing for the digital transformation of the government bureaucracy and the acceleration of much needed digital infrastructure as mandated by his recently issued EO 32 streamlining the permitting process telco tower and broadband service related projects.

As consumers, we must become responsible cyber citizens who are aware of our rights to data privacy and be discerning and cautious when we are doing our business online as we are in face to face transactions.

Digital transactions may be convenient and efficient, but online transactions take away the inter-personal feedback and nuances that we have been instinctively using in our dealings as consumers or sellers.

The internet is now an indispensable utility essential to our work and personal lifestyle. Fighting cybercrime needs synergy between the telco networks, the consumers, and the government.

The Ten Commandments for the newly married

required with the decree Tamets issued by the Council of Trent on November 11, 1563.

The decree Ne Temere of Pope Pius X in 1907 made the canonical form a requirement even where the decree of the Council of Trent had not been promulgated. Weddings in which both parties are Catholic Christians are ordinarily held in a Catholic church, while weddings in which one party is a Catholic Christian and the other party is a non-Catholic Christian can be held in a Catholic church or a non-Catholic Christian church.

In in the latter case permission of one’s Bishop or ordinary is required for the marriage to be free of defect of form, according to Church official sources.

In recent years, an average of nearly 178,000 people from the different strata of society tied the marital knot every year – with a dramatic plunge afterwards, the reason, generally, is that church weddings were getting more expensive sans figures actually presented.

Down the economic rung, people tend to get married because an added member—an inlaw—can be an economic asset either because the addition is a member of the work force or can be an effective member in reaping economic benefits for the family.

Others get married because in previous years they bore an offspring, and getting married is among the best norms for social acceptance.

The Ten Commandments, said by the groom’s old man, appeared properly etched on marble

Still some get married to share health insurance benefits or ensure that each spouse is entitled to inheritance upon the other’s death. There are of course, according to marriage counselors, others who marry purely out of love—an intense and passionate relation between a man and a woman.

The marriage is solemnized in a simple or grand ceremony—depending on the financial capability of the couple, mainly the man—that makes the couple, before the public, husband and wife, or the man’s family. This is the formal beginning of a relation where they promise in public that they would “live together during the good or bad times, dur- ing richness and poverty, misery and health until death do them part.”

Some counselors say there are instances where both, man and woman, “need to compromise and sustain their feelings to live a harmonious life.”

Recently, at an impromptu program of a wedding at a posh hotel in Makati, we heard the groom’s old man deliver his Ten Commandments, spoken straight from the heart—commandments that could have been spoken by even the bride’s father.

The groom’s father was straight to the point, in a lingo that could be easily digested and understood by the witnesses to the church wedding a couple of hours earlier on.

“There will be Ten Commandments which my wife and I hope they will assume as the cornerstone of their married life,” the groom’s father said.

In the father’s chronological sequencing, the commandments are:

First, be humane. Have the feelings proper to a human being; be kind, compassionate and elevating.

Second, be open to each other. Don’t be fastened; be clear, and don’t keep anything from each other.

Third, be noble. Be magnanimous and generous, even as you show the highest level of excellence or worth in everything you do to enhance both your personal and professional growth.

Fourth, be orotund. You must demonstrate to each other the characteristics of fullness, of strength, not only in body but also in emotions and mind, and of smoothness and impeccable excellence in your strides.

Fifth, be respectful. You must always have the capacity for expression of esteem, of goodwill and regard, which undoubtedly will show your sense of responsibility.

Sixth, be committed. You must be consigned to the present and the future, not only of yourselves but also of your children.

Seventh, be appreciatory. Be expressive of admiration. appreciate the little things that each makes for the conjugal partnership and for your roots.

Eighth, be beneficent. You must be kind and have the disposition, always and at all times, to do good.

Ninth, be irradiant. In whatever you do, you must have the capability to emit rays of light and be immeasurable in your infiniteness toward each other.

Tenth, be equitable and estimable. Be impartial and just; and, at whatever cost, in all the things you do, be worthy of regard, esteem and honor.

The Ten Commandments, said by the groom’s old man, appeared properly etched on marble.