Fisheries report quake damage

November 19, 2023 | 7:21 pm

fishing-fishermen — PHILIPPINE STAR /EDD GUMBAN

A TOTAL of 54 fishing boats were damaged as a result of Friday’s 7.2-magnitude earthquake in General Santos City and Sarangani province, the Department of Agriculture (DA) said on Sunday.

So far, only the fisheries sector has reported damage as a result of the tremor, which included pavement cracks at fish landing sites in Malapatan, Sarangani.

In addition, a DA building at the Prime Regional Government Center in Koronadal City was also damaged.

Since Agriculture Secretary Francisco T. Laurel, Jr. directed agencies of the department in Mindanao to assess the earthquake’s damage to farm infrastructure last Saturday, the DA has not yet received such reports that could hinder the food supply system.

The DA said it was still in the process of assessing, evaluating, and coordinating with various agencies for a complete its impact assessment and determine what assistance farmers and fishermen adversely affected by the quake would need.

“We are ready to extend assistance so that our stakeholders could quickly recover from this disaster,” Mr. Laurel said last Saturday. — Justine Irish D. Tabile

GSIS pensioners to get cash gift

November 19, 2023 | 7:21 pm

THE GOVERNMENT Service Insurance System (GSIS) will be releasing P3.47 billion in Christmas cash gifts to its more than 300,000 elderly and disability pensioners starting Dec. 6.

The GSIS said the cash gift, which will be credited to pensioners’ GSIS e-card, is equivalent to their one-month pension up to a maximum of P10,000.

“We are announcing this news early because we know that our pensioners are eagerly awaiting it, so they can plan when to withdraw and decide what to purchase with their benefits,” GSIS President and General Manager Jose Arnulfo “Wick” Veloso said in a statement in Filipino.

Mr. Veloso said that GSIS old-age and disability pensioners who are receiving their regular monthly pensions and are living as of Nov. 30 are qualified for the holiday gift.

He added that those who have their pensions suspended as of Dec. 31 because of failure to comply with Annual Pensioners Information Revalidation (APIR) will receive their cash gift after they finish the revalidation process. — Jomel R. Paguian

Phasing out plastics requires change in behavior — analyst

November 19, 2023 | 7:20 pm

PHASING OUT certain plastics, as a bill in Congress proposes, must take consumer behavior into account and more time than just four years to be fully implemented, an analyst said.

“If phasing out is really the track, it can be managed by a staggered implementation as plastic use is behavioral. You cannot just abruptly remove plastic until the population is able to adjust,” John Paolo R. Rivera, president and chief economist at Oikonomia Advisory & Research, Inc., said in a Viber message on Sunday.

Last Nov. 13, the House Committee on Ecology approved the proposed Single-Use Plastic Packaging Regulation Act, which seeks to phase out in four years plastic plates and saucers, oxo-degradable plastics and film wraps less than 50 microns thick.

The bill also seeks to discontinue in one year the use of flexible drinking straws, stirrers, sticks for candy, balloons or cotton buds, buntings, confetti, and packaging less than 10 microns thick.

“It can be done but four years may be too short to change behavior unless stringent laws will be applied,” said Mr. Rivera.

Mr. Rivera said that the government should also focus on minimizing the use of plastics. “Plastics should be used when appropriate and plastic substitutes [should] be used…in products like [that use] dry goods packaging.”

He added that recycling, upscaling and a proper system on plastic disposal should be implemented.

Riedo A. Panaligan, project coordinator of Plastic Free Pilipinas, said the measure could be implemented as the single-use plastics targeted for phase out “have clear alternatives already available in the market such as plastic straw with metal straws, plastic bags with ecobags, etcetera.”

“The world is now facing a plastic crisis, it is about time to eliminate problematic single-use plastics and plastic with known hazardous chemicals,” Mr. Panaligan said in an e-mail.

He added that the measure should include incentives that could help lessen the demand for plastics such as the establishments of alternative delivery systems and refills.

Congressmen last year approved a separate measure that seeks to impose an excise tax of P100 per kilo on single-use plastic bags. The bill is still pending before the Senate Ways and Means Committee.

Mr. Panaligan also said that Ecological Solid Waste Management Act, which lists non-environmentally acceptable packaging and products has yet to be implemented.

The Philippines is projected to generate 92 million tons of waste from 2022 to 2025, data from the Environmental Management Bureau said. — Beatriz Marie D. Cruz

Budget for literacy poll tripled

November 19, 2023 | 7:16 pm

THE SENATE Finance Committee has more than tripled the budget to conduct a survey aimed at gathering information on the literacy and educational skills of Filipinos. Under the proposed budget for next year, P208.97 million has been earmarked for the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) to implement the Functional Literacy, Education, and Mass Media Survey (FLEMMS). The amount is 254% bigger than the P58.9 million allocated for the purpose by the House of Representatives.

“This will help the Second Congressional Commission on Education (EDCOM II) to identify areas where we have high illiteracy rates, so we can launch programs that will improve education outcomes in those places,” Senator Sherwin T. Gatchalian said in a statement.

The EDCOM II, which is composed of members from the House and Senate, is tasked to assess and set targets to improve the country’s education sector.

Mr. Gatchalian also proposed to conduct the survey more regularly, which was last done in 2019.

The World Literacy Foundation reported that illiteracy costs a country’s economy P258 billion every year.

At least nine of out 10 Filipino children aged 10 struggle with reading and writing simple text, according to 2021 data from the World Bank.

The Education department has a proposed P718.08-billion budget under the Senate’s version of the 2024 General Appropriations bill.

The Senate is expected to approve its version of the budget this week. — Beatriz Marie D. Cruz

North Luzon tourism events kick off

November 19, 2023 | 7:15 pm

BAGUIO CITY — The Department of Tourism (DoT) launched the 2^nd North Luzon Travel Expo (NLTE) here over the weekend in a bid to ensure the further recovery of the tourism industry in Regions 1, 2, 3 and the Cordilleras.

The NLTE’s kick-off event was held last Saturday at the Grand Sierra Pines Hotel, North Outlook Drive, here, as the DoT-Cordillera is hosting this year’s event with main feature activities lined up for November 25-27 Tourism and Travel Fair at the CAP Convention Center of Camp John Hay.

There will be a musical show featuring local artists of the four regions; an Art in the Park event at Reflection Pool of Wright Park, Baguio City; and a Business to Business Networking activity at La Fayette Hotel, Baguio City.

There will also be product presentations at the CAP Convention Center; a Familiarization Tour (North Luzon Interregional Circuit) that will be a post tour of key destinations in Baguio City and Benguet in the Cordillera; and Naguillan, San Fernando City, Bauang, San Juan and Luna in La Union in Region 1.

On Nov. 26, the “Hibla ng Lahing Pilipino Fashion Parade” will be staged at the Manor Garden, Camp John Hay featuring regal fabrics from North Luzon. This is in recognition of the weavers of indigenous Filipino textiles.

DoT-Cordillera Regional Director Jovita A. Ganongan said the intention of the NLTE “is to create a synergy to develop a robust tourism value chain by converging existing and new domestic tourism products, destinations, and services of the North Luzon regions to the local and international markets. She also said this is also to further strengthen the relationship of the North Luzon regions with their tourism stakeholders.”

Enrique Esguerra of the Alliance of Travel and Tours Management in the Cordilleras (ATTIC) stressed that the activity especially the showcasing of attractions of each regions is never a competition but more of a collaborative effort to promote tourism. — Artemio A. Dumlao

Tentative Gaza deal reached to pause fighting, free hostages

November 19, 2023 | 4:49 pm

Israel-Hamas-Children’s mock bodybags — Children’s mock bodybags are pictured during a candlelight vigil in solidarity with Palestinians in Gaza amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas, outside the G.P.O., in Dublin, Ireland, Nov. 3, 2023. — REUTERS

KHAN YOUNIS, Gaza/JERUSALEM -— Israel, the United States and Hamas have reached a tentative agreement to free dozens of women and children held hostage in Gaza in exchange for a five-day pause in fighting, the Washington Post reported, citing people familiar with the deal.

However, both Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and US officials said no deal had been reached yet.

The hostage release could begin within the next several days, barring last-minute hitches, according to people familiar with the detailed, six-page agreement, the paper said on Saturday.

The report comes as Israel appears to be preparing to expand its offensive against Hamas militants to southern Gaza after air strikes killed dozens of Palestinians, including civilians reported to be sheltering at two schools.

Under the agreement, all parties would freeze combat operations for at least five days while 50 or more hostages are released in groups every 24 hours, the Post reported. Hamas took about 240 hostages during its Oct. 7 rampage inside Israel that killed 1,200 people.

The pause also is intended to allow a significant amount of humanitarian aid in, the newspaper said, adding the outline for the deal was put together during weeks of talks in Qatar.

But Mr. Netanyahu told a press conference on Saturday evening: “Concerning the hostages, there are many unsubstantiated rumors, many incorrect reports. I would like to make it clear: As of now, there has been no deal. But I want to promise: When there is something to say – we will report to you about it.”

A White House spokesperson also said Israel and Hamas have not yet reached a deal on a temporary ceasefire, adding the US is continuing to work to get a deal. A second US official also said no deal had been reached.

HOSPITAL ‘A DEATH ZONE’
Israel vowed to destroy Hamas after the Oct. 7 attack. As the conflict entered its seventh week, authorities in Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip raised their death toll to 12,300, including 5,000 children.

After dropping leaflets earlier in the week, Israel on Saturday again warned civilians in parts of southern Gaza to relocate as it girds for an onslaught after subduing the north.

Raising international alarm, Israel made Al Shifa Hospital in Gaza City a primary focus of its ground advance in northern Gaza.

A team led by the World Health Organization (WHO) which visited Al Shifa on Saturday described it as a “death zone” with signs of gunfire and shelling. WHO said it was developing plans for immediate evacuation of the remaining patients and staff.

Elsewhere in the north, Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini of UNRWA, the U.N. aid organization for Palestinian refugees, said on social media platform X that Israel bombarded two agency schools. More than 4,000 civilians were sheltered at one of them, he said.

“Dozens reported killed including children,” he said. “Second time in less than 24 hours schools are not spared. ENOUGH, these horrors must stop.”

A spokesperson for Gaza’s Hamas authorities said 200 people had been killed or injured at the school. Israel’s military did not comment.

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, whose government controls parts of the Israeli-occupied West Bank, on Saturday said “hundreds of forcibly displaced people were killed” at the two schools in Gaza.

Abbas on Saturday appealed to US President Joseph R. Biden to intervene to stop the Israeli operation in Gaza.

The Israeli army killed two Palestinians in incursions in the West Bank early on Sunday, the Palestinian news agency WAFA said.

Israeli forces shot dead Issam Al-Fayed, a disabled 46-year-old, at the entrance of the Jenin refugee camp, the agency said. Another man, Omar Laham, 20, was killed by a gunshot to the head in clashes with soldiers in the Dheisheh refugee camp south of Bethlehem, it said.

The agency said 15 Palestinians were killed early on Sunday in Israeli air bombardments of the central and southern Gaza strip.

Thirteen people were killed in an attack on a home in Nuseirat camp in central Gaza while a woman and her child were killed in the southern city of Khan Younis, WAFA said.

Reuters could not independently verify the reports.

AIR STRIKES
Mr. Biden, who opposes a ceasefire, was looking to the end of the conflict, saying in a Washington Post opinion article that the Palestinian Authority should ultimately govern both Gaza and the West Bank.

Asked about Biden’s proposal, Mr. Netanyahu told reporters in Tel Aviv the Palestinian Authority in its current form was not capable of being responsible for Gaza. Israel has not disclosed a strategy for Gaza after the war.

An Israeli offensive in the south could compel hundreds of thousands of Palestinians who fled Gaza City in the north to uproot again, along with residents of Khan Younis, a city of more than 400,000, compounding a dire humanitarian crisis.

The conflict has already displaced around two-thirds of Gaza’s population of 2.3 million.

An advance into southern Gaza may prove more complicated and deadlier than in the north, however, with Hamas militants dug into the Khan Younis region, a senior Israeli source and two top ex-officials said.

Early Saturday, an air strike in a busy residential district of Khan Younis killed 26 Palestinians and wounded 23, health officials said.

Eyad Al-Zaeem told Reuters he lost his aunt, her children and her grandchildren in the attack. They all had evacuated from northern Gaza on Israeli army orders only to die where the army told them they could be safe, he said.

“All of them were martyred. They had nothing to do with the (Hamas) resistance,” said Zaeem, standing outside the morgue at Nasser Hospital, where the 26 bodies were laid out before they were to be carried by loved ones to burials. — Reuters

Ukraine’s Zelensky slaps sanctions on 108 people and 37 Russian groups

November 19, 2023 | 4:48 pm

ZELENSKIY — UKRAINE’s President Volodymyr Zelensky speaks during a joint news conference with US President Joseph R. Biden (not pictured) in the East Room of the White House in Washington D.C., Dec. 21, 2022. — REUTERS

LVIV, Ukraine — President Volodymyr Zelensky has sanctioned 37 Russian groups and 108 people including a former prime minister and a former education minister and said he aimed to fight wartime abductions of children from Ukraine and other “Russian terror.”

“We are increasing the pressure of our state onto them and each of them must be held responsible for what they have done,” he said in his nightly video address on Saturday, after his office issued corresponding decrees with his signature.

Mr. Zelensky did not associate specific individuals or groups with particular wrongdoings. The decrees showed a range of 10-year penalties against individuals and five-year penalties against non-profit groups including one named in English as the “Russian Children’s Foundation.”

Mr. Zelensky said in his address that the list included “those involved in the abduction and deportation of Ukrainian children from the occupied territory” and individuals who “in various ways help Russian terror against Ukraine.”

Some of the newly-sanctioned people, which included many with Russian citizenship, had previously been punished with separate or similar penalties.

Those included Dmytro Tabachnyk, a former minister of education and science who had his Ukrainian citizenship stripped from him in February, and ex-Prime Minister Mykola Azarov.

With former President Viktor Yanukovich, Mr. Azarov previously had assets and property frozen among other penalties. The two men fled Ukraine for Russia in 2014 after a crackdown on street protests that killed more than 100 demonstrators in Kyiv.

Other individuals penalized on Saturday included Sergei Aksyonov, the Russian-installed head of Crimea, and Leonid Pasechnik, whom Vladimir Putin appointed head of Luhansk, the eastern Ukrainian region Russia annexed in 2022.

The sanctioned Russian groups included several whose names or websites indicate they work with children.

One sanctioned group was named Kvartal Lui, which matches an organization with a website which says its founder is Children’s Rights Commissioner Maria Lvova-Belova, herself sanctioned by Kyiv in October 2022.

The International Criminal Court in The Hague this month issued an arrest warrant against Lvova-Belova, along with President Vladimir Putin, accusing them of the war crime of deporting children from Ukraine.

Mr. Zelensky’s new list also sanctioned the executive director of Kvartal Lui, Sofia Lvova-Belova. Her older sister, Maria Lvova-Belova, has said children were taken to shelter them from violence and denied committing any war crime.

Kyiv says about 20,000 children have been removed to Russia or Russian-held territory without the consent of family or guardians, which it says amounts to a war crime that meets the UN treaty definition of genocide.

Yale University published research on Thursday saying more than 2,400 children aged between six and 17 had also been taken to 13 facilities across Russian-allied Belarus.

The report, from a group that receives US State Department funding, said that the transports across Russian territory to its western neighbor were “ultimately coordinated” between Putin and Belarus leader Alexander Lukashenko.

Mr. Zelensky’s decrees upheld a decision by the National Security and Defense Council to issue sanctions with an array of penalties including blocking assets, trade, transit, leasing, removal of capital, land purchases and other financial and economic activities. — Reuters

Japanese troops drill on island seen as vulnerable to China

November 19, 2023 | 4:47 pm

TOKUNOSHIMA, Japan — Japanese marines in amphibious assault vehicles stormed an island beach at the edge of the East China Sea on Sunday in a simulated attack to dislodge invaders from territory that Tokyo worries is vulnerable to attack from China.

As tensions run high with neighbors China, Russia and North Korea, the drill on the southwest island of Tokunoshima capped an 11-day series of exercises nationwide dubbed 05JX, meant to show the readiness of ground, sea and air forces to defend Japan’s territory and infrastructure, including nuclear power plants.

“The goal of JX is to show that if there is an emergency situation resulting from an attack, that we are able respond in a joint way,” General Yoshihide Yoshida, chief of staff of the Self-Defence Forces’ Joint Staff, said after observing the drill on Tokunoshima.

Ground Self-Defense Force amphibious assault vehicles launched from two Maritime Self-Defense Force landing ships anchored offshore. Other troops arrived in semi-inflatable rubber boats, with heavy equipment carried to shore on military hovercraft.

Unlike many of the beaches along Japan’s southwest island chain stretching toward Taiwan, the one on Tokunoshima does not have a coral reef that would make military operations more difficult.

The scope and pace of military exercises in Japan are likely to increase over the next few years, including with US forces, after Prime Minister Fumio Kishida in December unveiled the country’s biggest military buildup since World War II, with a pledge to double defense spending over five years.

Mr. Kishida has warned that East Asia could be the next Ukraine, if China, emboldened by Russia’s assault on its neighbor, attacks Taiwan.

The 43.5 trillion yen ($290 billion) in planned spending will go to new weapons such as longer-range missiles as well as to increase stocks of spare parts and munitions to fight a sustained conflict.

But the yen’s sharp decline this year has forced Japan to cut back on some planned purchases, including new models of the U.S.-made Chinook helicopters that Japan’s military used in the Tokunoshima drill. — Reuters

Elon Musk, under fire, threatens to file lawsuit against media watchdog

November 19, 2023 | 4:46 pm

ELON MUSK threatened on Saturday to sue media watchdog Media Matters and those who attacked his social media platform X, following moves by several large US companies to halt advertising on the site after being promoted alongside antisemitic content.

Mr. Musk and X have been under a microscope all week for antisemitic and racist content that has proliferated on the site since he purchased it in 2022.

Liberal watchdog group Media Matters for America said earlier this week that it found ads from IBM, Apple and others were placed alongside content promoting Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party.

Mr. Musk on Wednesday endorsed an antisemitic post on X that falsely claimed members of the Jewish community were stoking hatred against white people, drawing sharp condemnation, including from the White House.

“The split second court opens on Monday, X Corp will be filing a thermonuclear lawsuit against Media Matters and all those who colluded in this fraudulent attack on our company,” Mr. Musk wrote in a post on X, without naming any other parties.

Numerous companies suspended ads in the last two days, including IBM, Disney, Warner Bros Discovery and Comcast, Lions Gate Entertainment and Paramount Global. Axios reported that Apple, the world’s largest company by market value, would do the same.

“This week Media Matters for America posted a story that completely misrepresented the real experience on X, in another attempt to undermine freedom of speech and mislead advertisers,” a statement posted by Mr. Musk said. He accused Media Matters of creating an alternative account designed to “misinform advertisers” about their posts.

Media Matters on Saturday said Mr. Musk was a “bully” who threatens “meritless lawsuits.”

“Musk admitted the ads at issue ran alongside the pro-Nazi content we identified,” Media Matters President Angelo Carusone said in a statement.

“If he does sue us, we will win.”

Mr. Musk has threatened legal action against other parties in the past, most specifically the Anti-Defamation League, a nonprofit organization that fights antisemitism, blaming it for X’s loss of ad revenue. He has not yet sued the ADL, however.

Advertisers have fled the site since Mr. Musk bought it in October 2022 and reduced content moderation, resulting in a sharp rise in hate speech, according to civil rights groups.

The White House on Friday condemned Mr. Musk’s endorsement of what it called a “hideous” antisemitic conspiracy theory, and accused Mr. Musk of an “abhorrent promotion of antisemitic and racist hate” that “runs against our core values as Americans.”

Mr. Musk is also CEO of electric carmaker Tesla, which has been hit by several lawsuits that allege rampant racial or sexual harassment of workers.

Antisemitism has been on the rise in recent years in the United States and worldwide. Following the outbreak of war between Israel and Palestinian Islamist group Hamas, which attacked Israel on Oct. 7, antisemitic incidents in the United States rose by nearly 400% from the year-earlier period, the ADL said. — Reuters

Trump vows to kill Asia trade deal being pursued by Biden if elected

November 19, 2023 | 4:46 pm

FORT DODGE, Iowa — Donald Trump, the frontrunner for the Republican presidential nomination, said on Saturday that he would kill off a Pacific trade pact being advanced by US President Joseph R. Biden if he were to win the 2024 election and return to the White House.

Speaking to supporters in Iowa, Mr. Trump said he was against the regional trade deal being negotiated by the Biden administration with 13 other countries, arguing that it would hollow out US manufacturing and trigger job losses.

Talks on the trade sections of the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework (IPEF), which is aimed at offering the region an alternative to China’s growing trade clout, stumbled in recent days after some countries, including Vietnam and Indonesia, declined to commit to strong labor and environmental standards.

Mr. Trump, who withdrew from the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade deal that had been forged with many of the same countries after taking office in January 2017, said he would “knock out” what he referred to as “TPP Two” immediately upon taking office.

“Under the next administration… the Biden plan for ‘TPP Two’ will be dead on day one,” Trump said at a campaign event in Fort Dodge, about 94 miles (150 km) north of Des Moines.

“It’s worse than the first one, threatening to pulverize farmers and manufacturers with another massive globalist monstrosity designed to turbocharge outsourcing to Asia.”

The Biden administration had hoped to finish key chapters of its IPEF trade initiative in time for this week’s Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) meeting. It has vowed to continue negotiating the ambitious deal, but election-year pressures and resistance to tough commitments from some countries make a deal unlikely, trade experts and business groups say. — Reuters

China’s Xi offers more investment in South China Sea claimant Brunei

November 17, 2023 | 5:53 pm

BEIJING – China offered to buy more goods from Brunei and to encourage investment in the Islamic sultanate as President Xi Jinping lauded relations with the tiny nation that have centred more on economics than territorial disputes in the South China Sea.

In his meeting with Brunei’s Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah in San Francisco on Thursday, Xi said China would welcome more exports from Brunei, tell more Chinese enterprises to set up shop in the Southeast Asian country, and expand cooperation in areas such as food security, according to Chinese state media.

Brunei has a claim to part of the South China Sea, most of which Beijing says belongs to China. But unlike some of its vociferous neighbors with claims in the region, Brunei has kept silent on its own claim to a relatively small area off northern Borneo, choosing to focus on growing trade ties with China as the oil-reliant nation diversifies its economy.

“Both sides should work together to promote positive progress in joint maritime development and jointly safeguard peace and stability in the South China Sea,” Xi told Brunei’s sultan on the sidelines of the APEC summit in San Francisco.

China is willing to work with Brunei and other ASEAN nations to maintain the “correct” direction of cooperation in East Asia, Xi added.

Brunei has counted China as one of its biggest foreign investors and an important force in its efforts to create a more diversified economy, with its crude oil reserves expected to be totally depleted in a few decades.

The largest Chinese investment so far has been a multi-billion dollar oil refinery.

China’s Zhejiang Hengyi Petrochemical is a 70% shareholder in the Pula Muara Besar refinery, launched in 2019 in a venture with the Bruneian government.

Hengyi initially invested around $3.45 billion. It subsequently invested a further $13.65 billion to expand the plant’s refining capacity and build additional petrochemical facilities.

Brunei’s economy is forecast to contract about 1% this year, the International Monetary Fund has said, due to reduced energy production amid infrastructure maintenance.—Reuters

Joy~Nostalg fosters the joy of giving this holiday season

November 17, 2023 | 5:30 pm

The five-star serviced residences partners with the Liter of Light project for another meaningful Christmas Tree Lighting event

Five-star serviced residences Joy~Nostalg Hotel & Suites Managed by Accor promotes the true meaning of the holidays, reminding everyone to spread love during the most wonderful time of the year. Joy~Nostalg shares the jubilant message through its annual Christmas Tree Lighting event, titled “The Joy of Giving.”

This year’s celebration gives special meaning to the ceremonial kick-off to the holiday season. Living up to the event’s name, Joy~Nostalg exemplifies the joy of giving and extends hope and happiness to the less fortunate, in partnership with Liter of Light. The movement, led by social entrepreneur Ilac Diaz, turns inexpensive, readily available materials into high-quality solar lighting sources for people with limited or no access to electricity.

“This Christmas, our hearts are full as we illuminate lives, celebrating the gift of bringing light, joy, and hope to those in need,” says Odette Huang, general manager of Joy~Nostalg Hotel & Suites Managed by Accor.

Joy~Nostalg began its collaboration with Liter of Light months ago. The hotel learned that 90 minutes away from its location in Ortigas CBD, there is a community living without access to electricity. Joy~Nostalg reached out to Liter of Light, and worked to bring brightness to families, enabling proper study conditions for children and ensuring safe pathways for everyone.

Joy~Nostalg’s associates, aptly named “Heartists,” generously lent their resources to the project and contributed 100 solar lamps to the community. They personally assembled and delivered the lights, receiving overwhelming joy and gratitude from the community.

To supplement the effort, Joy~Nostalg reached out to customers, stakeholders, and guests for more contributions. The result is another set of 100 light sources, set to be handed out to 100 families during the holiday season.

“We often notice how our city becomes brighter during the festive season, but energy poverty still makes this same spark of Christmas a little harder to see in so many villages,” says Ilac Diaz, whose Liter of Light movement has installed more than 350,000 bottle lights in over 15 countries. “With Joy~Nostalg providing solar lamps hand-built by corporate volunteers, these lights will be sure to brighten so many lives this Christmas.”

Alongside the collaboration with Liter of Light, Joy~Nostalg also teamed up with Nespresso and the Negrense Volunteers for Change Foundation, Inc. (NVC) for this year’s Christmas celebration, featuring recycled capsules as ornaments in the hotel’s holiday decors. A total of 3,700 Nespresso capsules were recycled into handcrafted decorations by the NVC, an organization that provides proper nutrition for poor children, as well as sustainable livelihood opportunities for their parents. Joy~Nostalg also supported the livelihood of a small Barrio in Bohol, Antequera, by purchasing basket hampers for their season’s fine selection of gifting goodies.

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Spotlighting a bigger cause during its Christmas Tree Lighting event has become a tradition for Joy~Nostalg. Last year, the hotel supported the artisan project of Persons Deprived of Liberty (PDLs) of San Juan City Jail, showcasing their crafty parol products in the lobby. Proceeds from these hand-made parols benefitted the families of PDLs, allowing them to somehow partake in the celebration of Christmas.

For more information on Joy~Nostalg Hotel & Suites Managed by Accor, visit https://www.joynostalgmanila.com/ or contact +632 5318-7888 and HB2D6- RE1@accor.com. Follow the premier lifestyle destination on Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/JoyNostalgManila/), Instagram (@joynostalgmanila), and Twitter (@joynostalgmnl).

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