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Philippines braces for La Nina, continues to deal with El Nino
MANILA, March 26 (Xinhua) -- The Philippines will continue to implement measures to lessen the impact of the El Nino weather phenomenon, as it braces for the opposite La Nina weather pattern, Philippine Science and Technology Secretary Renato Solidum said Tuesday. Solidum said in a news conference that the Department of Science and Technology's record showed that as of Sunday, 37 provinces across the country hav.....»»
UnionDigital Bank revenue grows to over P5 billion
UnionDigital Bank, the digital banking arm of Aboitiz-led Union Bank of the Philippines, saw its revenue grow to over P5 billion in 2023 mainly driven by higher deposits and loans......»»
PUBG Mobile continues steady rise in Philippines
PUBG: Mobile has been a steady shooting game that Filipinos have been playing since its release back in 2018. Since then, the game has had Filipino-centric initiatives in 2022......»»
Over 40 defective weighing scales seized in Carbon Market
CEBU CITY, Philippines — The Office of the City Markets (OCM) of the Cebu City Government has confiscated over 40 defective weighing scales in Carbon Public Market as of March 21. Led by Market Administrator Robert Barquilla, the operation, dubbed “Operation Timbangan,” aims to ensure accurate measurements for customers. Barquilla, with assistance from Task Force.....»»
Cebu Football Club introduces new faces for the upcoming PFL season
CEBU CITY, Philippines — The Cebu Football Club (CFC) Gentle Giants continues to overhaul its entire roster after welcoming new faces, including key homegrown players, as the Philippines Football League (PFL) season unfolds in April. The Gentle Giants presented 10 new players, including four Cebu homegrown players, who will comprise its official roster for the.....»»
Top 10 e-commerce sites in the Philippines 2019 - ASEAN UP
With a dynamic economy and a large population proficient with digital technologies, the Philippines is a fast-growing market for e-commerce in Southeast Asia. Several websites and digital applications are already fighting for market share, with global, regional and national players. The growing connectivity of the Philippines, rapidly overcoming the countrys infrastructure difficulties, enable more and Continue reading &q.....»»
Real-life BFFs Jerald and Nicco fulfill dream of working together on screen
The first time they met was in 2007 through Cultural Center of the Philippines’ Tanghalang Pilipino. ‘Sabay kaming humiga sa carpet ng CCP kahit bawal dun,’ recounted Nicco. ‘We were just dreaming about the things we are doing now (acting). We would eat together in a cafeteria na hati kami ng ulam lang. We really started.’.....»»
Real-life BFFs Jerald and Nicco fulfilln dream of working together on screen
The first time they met was in 2007 through Cultural Center of the Philippines’ Tanghalang Pilipino. ‘Sabay kaming humiga sa carpet ng CCP kahit bawal dun,’ recounted Nicco. ‘We were just dreaming about the things we are doing now (acting). We would eat together in a cafeteria na hati kami ng ulam lang. We really started.’.....»»
LWUA firm on intervention as MCWD water leakage increases
CEBU CITY, Philippines –The battle over authority continues in the Metropolitan Cebu Water District (MCWD) as the Local Water Utilities Administration (LWUA) stands firm in its decision on the six-month intervention, despite the status quo stance. The LWUA expressed confusion as to why the incumbent MCWD board would not honor the partial intervention, clarifying that.....»»
Upping the ante
Beijing always ups the ante when it senses that its rival for the region’s security, the United States, is making its move to challenge its dominance in the region, which was probably how the 10-dash line came to be. With the release of the new map showing an expanded “historical” claim that included parts of India, China issued a strong criticism of the Americans with Senior Col. Wu Qian, spokesperson for China’s Ministry of National Defense, saying the US should “stop meddling in the South China Sea issue, stop sowing discord and fanning the flames, and stop disrupting regional peace and stability.” The comment was in response to US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin III’s statement that “the 2016 Arbitral Tribunal ruling is binding on all parties” and “the Mutual Defense Treaty extends to Philippine public vessels, aircraft and armed forces — to include those of its Coast Guard — in the Pacific, including in the South China Sea.” Vice Admiral Karl Thomas, commander of the US Navy’s Seventh Fleet, backed the American position, saying the recent use of a water cannon by China’s Coast Guard against a Philippine vessel “must be challenged and checked.” He also “assured the Philippines of US backing.” Wu reiterated China’s position that the Philippines infringed on its sovereignty and violated the Declaration on the Conduct of Parties in the South China Sea to justify the China Coast Guard’s action. “We hope regional countries can stay vigilant, faithfully implement the DoC, and work with the Chinese side to maintain peace and stability in the region. The Chinese military will resolutely safeguard China’s national sovereignty and maritime rights and interests, as well as peace and stability in the South China Sea,” the spokesperson stressed. The increasing challenge from China should be matched by the US, according to geopolitical experts. A former Pentagon official, Michael Rubin, suggested the “reflagging” of islands in the disputed areas to send a clear message to China. Rubin recalled an incident in 1987 when President Ronald Reagan ordered the reflagging of nearly a dozen Kuwaiti tankers to stop Iran from attacking them to force the emirate to cease its trade with and loans to Iraq. “Reagan ignored criticism that reflagging the tankers could embroil the United States in war because he understood that at stake were not only Kuwait’s oil exports but also freedom of navigation and the rules-based order,” Rubin explained. He said that while skirmishes did occur, “once the ayatollahs understood Reagan stood firm, Iranian forces suspended their provocations.” Rubin believes that since China challenges the freedom of navigation and the broader liberal order, “perhaps the US could take a page from Reagan’s playbook and reflag not ships but rather some of the rocks, reefs, and atolls over which China now erroneously claims sovereignty.” The Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague invalidated in 2016 the historical claim of China through its nine-dash line as being without basis. The root of the claim was a 1947 map the authenticity of which historians dismissed. “That Beijing bases its claim on supposed historic Chinese fishing activity further displays the emptiness of the Chinese Communist Party’s logic. After all, Vietnamese, Taiwanese, Malay, Filipino and Indonesian fishermen also plied the same waters and perhaps even some closer to China,” Rubin noted. “Regardless, using the fictional map, China, in one fell swoop, claimed the bulk of the South China Sea and its considerable fishing and oil reserves,” he said. His proposal would be based on “leases drawn between the US government and its regional partners.” The leases would be backed by the arbitral award. “While the current US legal position supports the 2016 Hague tribunal judgment that finds no power can legally exercise sovereignty over disputed territories, the White House might reconsider this (stance),” Rubin added. But Rubin admitted that a greater problem might be the unwillingness of the regional states to offer leases. The proposal breaks with the usual conventions in the settling of disputes. Americans have a term for that, however: “It’s so crazy, it just might work.” The post Upping the ante appeared first on Daily Tribune......»»
Australia’s Phl stakes up
It’s due season for the Philippines, an increasingly lucrative investment destination that embodies a shift in the center of gravity in the regional economy. The country’s bullish business prospects post-pandemic are propped up by the recent increase in direct investments, which continue to inspire business confidence in the Philippines. Among the flurry of such inflows is Australian, what with the country’s AUD89.9 million (P3.32 billion) worth of official development assistance (2023 to 2024) to the Philippines. This came at the heels of a productive meeting between Australian Foreign Minister Penny Wong and DFA Sec. Enrique Manalo last week, a fund that will be channeled mostly to programs on inclusive economic growth, education, training and scholarships, disaster and climate resilience, and peace and stability in the Bangsamoro. Ongoing cooperation in the areas of science and innovation, people-to-people exchanges, law and justice is also uppermost, as well as defense, maritime, and counter-terrorism. Wong said Australia considers providing drones and other technology as a part of maritime cooperation package to buttress the Philippines’ position in waters adjacent to many sovereign interests. Manila and Canberra are a long-standing “important security partner” in the region according to Wong, who added that Australia also thinks trilateral partnerships with the Philippines on joint patrols in the West Philippine Sea is also possible. The fund is on top of Canberra’s AUD10.95-million (P405 million) pledge for the establishment of a new immunization information and strengthened laboratory network and surveillance systems in the Philippines for health emergencies like the recent pandemic. The Philippines had received approximately P3.1-billion ODA last year. The bulk of it was pivotal in the realization of the peace process in the Bangsamoro. The two countries are exploring investment cooperation on critical minerals and the improvement of two-way tourism. “Work and holiday visa arrangement” are also high on the negotiation table. Wong’s high-level visit to Manila earlier this month may serve as a precedent to a possible in-person meeting between President Marcos Jr. and Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese come the Asean-Australia Summit in March 2024, or a bilateral visit soon. The post Australia’s Phl stakes up appeared first on Daily Tribune......»»
Unsound climate studies sneak into print: scientists
Misleading studies sowing doubt about climate change are getting into peer-reviewed journals, scientists warn, citing recent papers linked to a lawsuit in Germany whose authors denied conflicts of interest. Observers have long questioned the growing number of research journals that take fees from eager academics but often publish their work without rigorous review. Biased authors, they say, are taking advantage of an overloaded assessment system, undermining the scientific evidence that provides the bedrock for climate action. "The recent explosion of so-called 'predatory journals' is creating problems that are pro-actively explored by climate sceptics," said Carl Schleussner, a scientist at research group Climate Analytics. "It opens the door to those who want to willingly get dubious research out there." AFP Fact Check's full investigation is published at u.afp.com/i2qZ. Peruvian glacier study One study denied that human-driven warming was to blame for the melting of a Peruvian glacier and consequent flood risk. Two of its authors are former executives of RWE, a German energy company targeted by a lawsuit over the glacier, and both are prominent climate contrarians. Their study appeared in November 2022 in the Journal of South American Earth Sciences, which is owned by the major Dutch publisher Elsevier. Like many others, the journal charges authors for submissions, which are then supposed to be vetted by qualified experts before being published. The paper attacked the findings of an earlier study by scientists at Oxford University that a plaintiff in the Peruvian case -- a local farmer who says RWE's carbon emissions contributed to warming -- is citing as evidence. Nathan Stansell, a palaeoclimatologist at Northern Illinois University, is one of the scientists whose work was cited in the German-led paper. The paper was "fraught with misinformation, mischaracterizations and bias," he told AFP. It presented a "debunked argument that since it was warm in medieval times, then there was nothing alarming about recent warming. "The bulk of the paleoclimate community recognises that the groups trying to spread this fallacy cannot compete with sound scientific data." Two other scientists cited in the study, Ben Marzeion of the University of Bremen and Jorge Strelin of Cordoba University in Argentina, also told AFP their work was misused. Strelin said a graphic in the study, drawing on one used in his own work, omitted data showing the sharp retreat of one glacier over recent decades. The two ex-RWE men, lead author and geologist Sebastian Luening and chemist-turned-politician Fritz Vahrenholt, did not respond to AFP's requests to comment. The author of the Oxford study, Rupert Stuart-Smith, submitted to the journal a formal scientific rebuttal of Luening's paper, contesting its use of certain data and detailing what he called "inaccurate or misleading assertions." Elsevier communications executive Andrew Davis told AFP the journal's editors "did not detect unethical behaviours and it is their belief that the two research groups simply did not agree with each other." But the publisher acknowledged the failure to include a disclosure of the authors' links to RWE in the study. The disclosure did appear in a preliminary "pre-proof" of the paper but disappeared from the version published in November 2022. "The publisher would like to apologize for any inconvenience caused," Elsevier said in an email to AFP. It said the disclosure would be added back into the study after approval from the authors. Firm denies funding study Another paper on the Peru glacier appeared in the journal Remote Sensing, from publisher MDPI, in 2021. The study reviewed three years of data on ice-flow velocity and assessed the risk of avalanches and floods, concluding that there was no evidence that a flood was imminent. Stansell said this conclusion should have been dealt with in a separate study as it "seems out of place and doesn't relate directly with their principal findings". A 2022 article by investigative media group SourceMaterial said the study was produced with funding from RWE. It cited the authors as denying this. The authors did not respond to AFP. RWE spokesman Guido Steffen told AFP the study "was made independently from RWE and the court case and it was not funded or paid for by RWE." Regarding the Luening study, he said: "We did neither commission that study nor play any role in producing it." Extreme weather study slammed In September 2022, top climate scientists called for the withdrawal of a paper that claimed scientific evidence of a climate crisis was lacking. The peer-reviewed paper by four Italian scientists appeared in the European Physical Journal Plus, from prestigious science publisher Springer Nature. Four scientists told AFP the study manipulated data and cherry-picked facts about extreme weather events. In response, Springer Nature put a warning notice on the article and said it was investigating. In late March 2023 Christian Caron, executive publisher of Springer Nature, told AFP the investigation was "progressing but still ongoing. "Additional material received as part of the investigation is currently following the usual procedures of an extensive peer-reviewing process, which may take more time than anticipated." Payment for publication is a time-honoured part of the business model among peer-reviewed journals. Their reputation relies on being the gold standard in scientific publishing, through external reviewers who are supposed to weed out false papers and reject sketchy or biased use of data. But the low-cost advantages of publishing on the internet have led to an explosion of peer-reviewed journals and, say some, standards have fallen. Ivan Oransky, co-founder of Retraction Watch, a blog that tracks thousands of withdrawals of academic papers each year, told AFP some authors sought to get unsound work published in journals with a lax peer-review system that used unqualified reviewers. "A lot of junk gets through peer review," he said. "It is really time that everybody admitted that, so that we can try and do better." The post Unsound climate studies sneak into print: scientists appeared first on Daily Tribune......»»
US reaffirms support for Philippines sovereignty amid its tensions with China
Washington, DC [US], March 28 (ANI): US Secretary of Defence Llyod Austin has reaffirmed Washington's commitment to Manila in defending its sovereignty while criticising China's "dangerous" water cannon attack at the Philippine supply mission vessel on Saturday. In a telephonic conversation between Austin and his Philippine counterpart Gilberto Teodoro, the US Secretary reiterated the US-Philippines Mutual Defence Treaty.....»»
Philippines announces decisive measures amid tensions with China
Manila [Philippines], March 28 (ANI): Amid the escalating tensions in the South China Sea, Philippine President Ferdinand R Marcos Jr has announced decisive measures to protect his country's sovereignty and maritime rights while ensuring peace and stability in the Indo-Pacific. Marcos, known as Bongbong, said that the measures, aimed at addressing what he said is the "open, unabating, and illegal" actions by China's Coast.....»»
Philippines’s Marcos pledges action in response to China’s ‘dangerous attacks’
President Ferdinand Marcos of the Philippines has issued a strong statement in response to recent confrontations in the South China Sea, stating that the country.....»»
PH media slam Chinese foreign ministry’s claims of manipulating WPS reports
Philippine media groups criticized the Chinese foreign ministry for suggesting that recent reports on Chinese harassment of Filipino vessels in the West Philippine Sea involved video manipulation and sensationalism to portray the Philippines as a victim. The Foreign Correspondents Association of the Philippines (Focap) and National Union of Journalists of the Philippines (NUJP) expressed offense.....»»
Cebu City declares state of calamity in 28 mountain barangays due to el Niño
CEBU CITY, Philippines – In response to the escalating effects of the ongoing El Niño phenomenon, Cebu City has declared a “state of calamity” in 28 mountain barangays. This decision comes after a resolution was passed with reports of dwindling water sources and agricultural distress, prompting urgent measures to assist affected communities in the city. .....»»
Akbayan to Sara: You don’t have to be president to speak vs China
MANILA, Philippines — Party-list group Akbayan said on Thursday that Vice President Sara Duterte does not have to be a president of the country for her to call out China’s intrusive actions over the West Philippine Sea (WPS). Empathy and a moral backbone is just what it takes to stand up with fisherfolk and frontline.....»»
CCLEX safety enhancements pushed after US bridge tragedy
Cebu City, Philippines — In light of recent events, a call for increased CCLEX safety measures has been made to the Cebu Cordova Link Expressway Corporation (CCLEC) by a Cebu City legislator. Councilor Rey Gealon penned a resolution urging CCLEC to implement precautionary measures at the Cebu-Cordova Link Expressway to prevent disasters, considering the high.....»»
Church visits are allowed only until 10 p.m. – Police chief
CEBU CITY, Philippines – Church visits on Maundy Thursday will only be allowed until 10 p.m. the chief of the Cebu City police announced on Thursday, March 28. Police Colonel Ireneo B. Dalogdog, City Director of the Cebu City Police Office (CCPO) said that the public is not allowed inside religious places past 10:00 p.m......»»