PBBM visiting Vietnam in Jan. ‘24

RESIDENT Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. will go on a state visit to Vietnam in January 2024 as the two nations seek to reinvigorate their strategic partnership formed in 2015.

In his opening remarks for the 10th Philippine-Vietnam Joint Commission for Bilateral Cooperation meeting on Wednesday, Foreign Affairs Secretary Enrique Manalo said the visit would provide an opportunity for both Marcos and Vietnamese President Vo Van Thuong “to discuss how to raise our bilateral ties to even greater heights”.

NCR mayors eye rain catchment system Zamora

By Joel E. Zurbano

METRO Manila mayors have proposed the installation of a rain catchment system in anticipation of possible water shortages in the National Capital Region.

Members of the Metro Manila Council (MMC) made the proposal Wednesday after its meeting with the Metropolitan Manila Development Authority.

According to MMC president and San Juan City Mayor Francis Zamora, the structures may be built at city and village halls and public schools, among others.

“The rainwater caught by our roofs and gutters will flow to drums so we can store and use them,” he said.

He added the MMDA can provide tanks for the catchment system.

MMDA acting chairman Romando Artes said his agency researched about modular rain catchment systems.

In July, the government floated an idea to regulate water usage in Metro Manila.

Zamora said local chief executives have the autonomy to decide on the matter, saying not all cities in Metro Manila have establishments that need large amounts of water.

The issue of water usage regulation surfaced following the appeal of Metropolitan Waterworks and Sewerage System (MWSS) to business establishments and those consuming massive volumes of water tovconserve and limit their usage.

State weather bureau officials said earlier at least 30 provinces may experience a dry spell while at least two provinces may suffer from drought due to the El Niño phenomenon.

PAGASA climate monitoring chief Ana Solis said the possibility of El Niño is high.

\She said rainfall is expected to decrease next month and may drop further from October to December this year.

Zamora urged fellow local officials to “conserve and recycle water as much as possible, and implement a rainwater catchment system to collect rainwater that could be used for other purposes.”

College...

From A1

“Eighty percent of our cohorts in 2018 graduates went to higher education, and then 10 percent of them got employed, and then the remaining percent are not in education, employment, and training,” DepEd Director

Samuel Soliven III said.

The “Tara, Basa! Tutoring Program” was firmed up through a memorandum of agreement signed by DepEd Secretary and Vice President Sara Duterte-Carpio and DSWD Secretary Rex Gatchalian.

According to Gatchalian, three groups would benefit from the program: some 63,000 incoming Grade 2 students; their parents or guardians who will receive P235 per day by assisting their children with the reading sessions and other related activities; and about 6,000 third and fourth-year college students who will receive P570 per tutoring day as a form of cash for work.

The program will be tested in Metro Manila for 20 days from August 15 and may be extended depending on the feedback.

In her speech, Duterte-Carpio thanked those who made the program possible. She said this was one of the ways by which DepEd is fulfilling its promise to provide students with modern and quality education.

“President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. recently finished his first year in office, and we have seen a remarkable display of trust and confidence between our two countries,” he said.

During a meeting on the sidelines of the 42nd Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) summit in Indonesia, Marcos and Vietnamese Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh agreed to strengthen the strategic partnership by expanding engagement in various areas of cooperation, including defense and security.

The Chief Executive also sought to craft an agreement to avoid any untoward incident in the South China Sea.

“And that’s why, I have asked our foreign ministers, our Foreign Secretary and then the Foreign Minister of Vietnam to begin, develop the talks so that we can have an agreement to avoid any problem,” he told reporters in a May 11 interview on board PR001.

The upcoming state visit will come as Manila and Hanoi cap their five-year Plan of Action in 2024.

“[O]ur Plan of Action will end its five-year course in 2024 so we would need to negotiate a new plan and reinvigorate it, and this will guide our strategic partnership for another five years,” Manalo said.

Among the areas Manila hopes to further strengthen with Hanoi are maritime cooperation, trade and investment promotion, people-to-people exchanges, and cooperation in ASEAN and other multilateral fora, among others.