US raises concerns over China’s counter-espionage push

August 3, 2023 | 5:52 pm

American-US-flag — STOCK PHOTO | Image from Pixabay

WASHINGTON — The United States on Wednesday raised concerns over a Chinese call to encourage its citizens to join counter-espionage work and said it has been closely monitoring the implementation of Beijing’s expanded anti-spying law.

China’s Ministry of State Security on Tuesday said China should encourage its citizens to join counter-espionage work, including creating channels for individuals to report suspicious activity and rewarding them for doing do.

A system that makes it “normal” for regular people to participate in counter-espionage should be established, the ministry said.

That followed an expansion of China’s counter-espionage law that took effect in July and bans the transfer of information it sees as related to national security. It has alarmed the United States, which has warned that foreign companies in China could be punished for regular business activities.

“We do have concerns over it, certainly encouraging citizens to spy on each other is something that’s of great concern,” State Department spokesperson Matt Miller told a daily news briefing.

“We are closely monitoring the implementation of China’s new counter-espionage law as we have been, which as written greatly expands the scope of what activities are considered espionage,” he said.

In recent years, China has arrested and detained dozens of Chinese and foreign nationals on suspicion of espionage, including an executive at Japanese drugmaker Astellas Pharma in March. Australian journalist Cheng Lei, accused by China of providing state secrets to another country, has been detained since September 2020.

China’s declaration that it is under threat from spies comes as Western nations, most prominently the United States, accuse China of espionage and cyberattacks, a charge that Beijing has rejected. — Reuters

Pope says Church needs ‘humble purification’

August 3, 2023 | 5:51 pm

LISBON — Pope Francis on Wednesday said the Catholic Church needs a “humble and ongoing purification” to deal with the “anguished cries” of victims of clerical sexual abuse, who he met privately on the first day of his visit to Portugal.

Pope Francis was speaking in Lisbon at the start of a five-day visit to the country in which he hopes to energize young Catholics during World Youth Day, the world’s largest Catholic festival.

Six months ago, a report by a Portuguese commission said at least 4,815 minors were sexually abused by clergy — mostly priests — over seven decades.

The crisis “calls us to a humble and ongoing purification, starting with the anguished cry of the victims, who must always be accepted and listened to,” Francis said in an address to bishops, priests and religious sisters at an evening vespers service in a monastery.

He spoke of today’s “growing detachment from the practice of the faith,” saying it had been accentuated by widespread disappointment and anger over the global abuse crisis and other scandals.

Francis met privately with 13 abuse victims at the Vatican embassy in Lisbon on Wednesday evening, with the Holy See saying in a statement the meeting took place in an “atmosphere of intense listening” and lasted over an hour.

The Vatican added the victims were accompanied by some representatives of institutions of the Portuguese Church responsible for the protection of minors.

The Portuguese Bishops’ Conference said in a statement the meeting was “of the path of reconciliation that the Portuguese Church in Portugal has been following in this area, putting victims first, collaborating in their reparation and recovery, so that it is possible for them to look to the future with hope and renewed freedom”.

YOUNG CATHOLICS CONVERGE ON LISBON
The pope landed in Lisbon to a sea of young Catholics who have poured into the city from around the globe for the World Youth Day festival, held every two or three years in a different city. It is the fourth such event Francis will preside over since he became pope in 2013.

In Lisbon, young believers jumped and sang as they proudly waved their country’s flag outside the Vatican embassy, where the pope is residing. Young Catholics from nearly every country in the world have registered for the event.

World Youth Day “is a sign of faith and union in which all of us get together for a cause,” said 20-year-old Carlos Hernandez. “It’s very emotional.”

Francis has enacted numerous changes in the Church and has been pushing on with a series of reforms he hopes could leave a lasting legacy.

But he faces a delicate balance between appealing to more liberal believers and upsetting conservatives by giving women more roles and making the church more welcoming and less judgmental towards some, including LGBT people.

At the opening Mass on Tuesday before the pope arrived, Australian Andrew De Santos, 35, expressed hope the next generation would be able to move on from “errors” of the past.

Three huge billboards raising awareness of clerical sexual abuse were put up overnight in Lisbon hours before Francis’ arrival. One was later removed.

‘STIR THINGS UP’
On the plane to Portugal for the youth event, Francis vowed to “continue to stir things up,” a reference to his call during an earlier World Youth Day in Brazil to not be complacent but to make noise and instil change.

The 86-year-old pope, who is making his first trip since intestinal surgery in June and uses a wheelchair and cane, appeared in good form and said he hoped to return to Rome on Sunday “rejuvenated by his encounter with young people.”

In his first speech of the trip, to President Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa and diplomats at a cultural centre, Francis said the world was currently “sailing amid storms on the ocean of history”, including the war in Ukraine, and urged Europe to find the resolve to help end it and other conflicts.

He said Europe should divert money spent on armaments and use it to boost education and fund family-friendly legislation to help reverse a falling birth rate aggravated by prohibitive costs of housing for young couples.

He also urged Europe to rise to the challenge of “welcoming, protecting, promoting and integrating” migrants, both for humanitarian reasons and as a means of boosting dwindling populations. — Reuters

China’s energy security push drives up fossil fuel approvals – research

August 3, 2023 | 2:30 pm

SINGAPORE — China approved more than 50 gigawatts (GW) of new coal power in the first half of 2023, research by environment group Greenpeace showed, with the world’s top carbon polluter focused on energy security rather than cutting fossil fuel consumption.

As scientists and environmentalists urge governments to make deeper emission cuts after record-breaking heatwaves across the globe, the impact of extreme weather has spurred China to build even more coal-fired plants as it tries to counter the effects of drought on hydropower production and avoid power outages.

“China’s government has put energy security and energy transition at odds with one another,” said Greenpeace’s Gao Yuhe, who led the research published on Thursday.

Beijing has promised to bring carbon emissions to a peak before 2030, but another pledge made by President Xi Jinping to start cutting coal use over the 2026-2030 period is now under threat, Gao said.

“Beijing has clearly stated that coal power will still grow at a ‘reasonable pace’ into 2030,” she said.

China’s National Energy Administration (NEA) did not immediately reply to a fax sent requesting a comment on the coal plants and their power generation policies.

Coal output in China surged 9% to 4.5 billion tons last year, more than half the world’s total, and continued to rise this year, government data showed, with coal plants under pressure to offset a 22.9% decline in hydropower generation during the first half.

The increase in China’s coal usage reflects a worldwide pattern. The International Energy Agency said last week that global coal consumption reached a record 8.3 billion tons in 2022, with strong growth in Asia offsetting declines elsewhere.

In March, the National Development and Reform Commission, China’s state economic planner, said it would “strengthen” coal’s supporting role in the overall energy mix.

China has built more than 1,000 GW of coal-fired capacity from 2000 to 2022, enough to power the entire European Union and amounting to 69% of total global additions, according to data compiled by the Global Energy Monitor think tank.

‘BUILT-IN BIAS’
Officially, many of China’s new coal-fired power plants are designed to provide back-up for clean but weather-dependent power sources like wind, solar, and hydro, especially during droughts or peak consumption periods.

But China’s “built-in bias to coal” is preventing it from investing more in critical energy storage infrastructure that could make renewable power more reliable, Gao said.

The scale of the new builds also suggests the main motivation is economic growth and the argument that they are backing renewables is becoming less convincing, said Jorrit Gosens, a climate researcher at the Australian National University.

“The story has long been that capacity does not matter so much, as long as these plants are not also run at high rates of utilisation, but you have to be quite an optimist to repeat that by now,” he said.

While coal power inches up, China’s renewable installations have also continued to soar, with capacity rising 109 GW in the first half, according to NEA data.

“The good news, as always, remains that renewables keep getting more competitive, and are being built at a record pace,” said Gosens. “That will start to eat into coal’s market share fairly soon.” — Reuters

US House panel opens probe into suspected Chinese hacking of Commerce, State emails

August 3, 2023 | 2:26 pm

WASHINGTON — The United States House of Representatives Oversight Committee said on Wednesday it is opening an investigation into China’s suspected involvement in recent breaches of Commerce and State department email systems.

Representative James Comer, who chairs the committee, and the heads of two subcommittees asked Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo and Secretary of State Antony Blinken for staff briefings by Aug. 9.

“We are also concerned that this attack on federal agencies, including the email account of a senior U.S. government official such as yourself, reflects a new level of skill and sophistication from China’s hackers,” the lawmakers wrote Raimondo.

Raimondo was among a group of senior U.S. officials whose emails were hacked earlier this year by a group Microsoft said was based in China, according to a person briefed on the matter.

The State and Commerce departments did not immediately return messages seeking comment.

Last month’s news that Chinese hackers penetrated the emails of senior State and Commerce department officials caused a stir amid high tensions between Beijing and Washington over a host of issues, from trade to Taiwan.

The full extent of the breach, which affected at least two dozen other organizations, is not clear.

The Wall Street Journal reported last month that the hackers also accessed the email account of the U.S. ambassador to China as well as Daniel Kritenbrink, the assistant secretary of state for East Asia.

Hundreds of thousands of emails were stolen overall, the Journal said.

Raimondo said last month she still plans to visit China later this year despite the reported Chinese hacking. “We’re planning the trip now, which doesn’t mean that we excuse any kind of hacking or infringement on our security,” Raimondo told CNBC.

China’s embassy in Washington said in an earlier statement that identifying the source of cyber-attacks was complex and warned against “groundless speculations and allegations.” — Reuters

J&J talc cancer plaintiffs want 6-month ban on further bankruptcy filings

August 3, 2023 | 2:14 pm

Johnson-&-Johnson-baby-powder — IMAGE BY MIKE MOZART/FLICKR/ CC BY 2.0

NEW YORK — Lawyers for thousands of people who claim Johnson & Johnson’s talc-based powders caused them to develop cancer on Wednesday urged a U.S. judge to temporarily block the company from seeking bankruptcy protection for a third time for its talc subsidiary.

J&J’s attempt at resolving thousands of cancer lawsuits in bankruptcy court stumbled for a second time last week, when a judge ruled that the talc subsidiary, LTL Management, was not in the kind of immediate financial distress necessary to trigger bankruptcy protection.

While J&J intends to appeal that ruling, cancer claimants and the U.S. Department of Justice’s bankruptcy watchdog asked U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Michael Kaplan in Trenton, New Jersey, to block the company from filing for bankruptcy a third time for at least 180 days.

LTL’s bankruptcy proceedings have largely paused the 38,000 lawsuits against J&J, although one case was allowed to proceed to a $18.8 million verdict in July. J&J has said its talc products are safe and do not contain asbestos.

During a Wednesday court hearing, LTL attorney Greg Gordon countered that the company would “strongly resist” any request to “pre-judge” a potential future bankruptcy before it could be filed.

But David Molton, an attorney for the official committee representing cancer claimants in LTL’s bankruptcy, said that a temporary prohibition on new bankruptcy filings was appropriate, given LTL’s repeated bankruptcy filings.

Kaplan, who dismissed LTL’s second bankruptcy, said he was not inclined to block future bankruptcy filings because circumstances could change in the next six months. “I just don’t have a crystal ball,” Kaplan said.

But the judge said he was open to further written arguments on that point before issuing a formal decision closing LTL’s second bankruptcy case next week.

J&J’s first bankruptcy gambit began in 2021, when it offloaded its talc liabilities into a new company via a corporate division known as a “Texas two-step” and immediately placed the new company into bankruptcy.

LTL’s first bankruptcy was dismissed in April after a U.S. appeals court ruled that it was not in sufficient financial distress to be eligible for bankruptcy protection.

LTL’s second effort, premised on a proposed $8.9 billion settlement of current and future talc lawsuits, met the same fate after Kaplan ruled that the company was still not in the kind of “immediate” distress required by the appellate court’s ruling. — Reuters

Double-digit growth in real wages, retail sales as Russia’s unemployment hits record low

August 3, 2023 | 2:11 pm

Record low unemployment in June highlighted Russia’s stark labour shortage, statistics data showed on Wednesday, even as the rebound from last year’s economic slump continued with double-digit jumps in wage growth and retail sales.

Russia was hit with a barrage of Western sanctions when it invaded Ukraine in February last year, ultimately leading to a 2.1% contraction in gross domestic product (GDP) in 2022, a better-than-expected decline touted by Moscow as evidence of its economic resilience.

Moscow regularly cites low unemployment and other recovering indicators as a sign that its economy is on the up, but the shortage of workers, exacerbated by last September’s partial mobilisation for the conflict in Ukraine, is set to bite over the long run.

“The age pyramid, mobilisation and those who have left (the country) mean that for five years we will be trying to grow with a shrinking workforce,” veteran economist Natalia Zubarevich, a professor at Moscow State University, told a financial congress last month.

The defence sector is getting all the attention, while other areas struggle, she said.

“The worst crisis among those employed is in the industrial sector and construction,” Zubaervich said. “That’s where the trouble is and it’s not dissipating.”

Unemployment dropped to 3.1% in June, a new record low, said the statistics service, Rosstat. Retail sales jumped 10% year on year in June, having fallen by almost as much the year before. Real wages, data for which are reported with a one-month lag, climbed 13.3% in May.

Real disposable incomes in the second quarter rose 5.3% year on year, Rosstat said, having remained flat in the same period of 2022.

The statistics service revised the first-quarter rise in real disposable incomes to 4.4% from 0.1% estimated in May, without providing a reason for the significant change. Incomes fell 1.0% in 2022 as a whole. — Reuters

EV leader Audi PHL launches new 100% electric Q8 e-tron

August 3, 2023 | 1:00 pm

audi-q8-e-tron-charging-OL — All Audi Q8 e-tron models are provided with seamless charging solutions.

Introduction of latest models part of largest model offensive in Audi’s history

Audi Philippines introduces the flagship of the brand’s SUVs and crossovers — the 100% electric Q8 e-tron models. The launch of the latest models is in line with Audi’s global electrification strategy.

In introducing the new 100% electric Audi Q8 e-tron, Audi Philippines is holding the Audi Driving Experience from Aug. 4 to 6 at the 30th East B Open Parking in Bonifacio Global City. Lined up during the weekend program are a series of driving activities designed to showcase the capabilities and advantages offered by — as well as dispel misconceptions about — Audi’s 100% electric vehicle range.

Audi Philippines’ e-tron range currently provides the domestic market with the widest selection of 100% electric vehicles. As a result, the company has sold the most number of such models locally.

The new Audi Q8 e-tron continues Audi e-tron’s success story as the spearhead of the brand’s 100% electric models. Clearly positioned as the flagship among Audi’s extensive portfolio of electric-powered SUVs and crossovers, the new models are immediately identifiable as fully electric. Aptly serving as a symbol of this is the new two-dimensional design of Audi’s four rings logo that are fitted on these new models. Audi further highlights the vehicles’ fascia with a projection light on the Singleframe grille, as well as a new badge on the B-pillar.

Defining the new 100% electric Audi Q8 e-tron models are a refined design, and improved efficiency and driving range.

Besides receiving a more refined design, the new 100% electric Audi Q8 e-tron models boast of improved efficiency and range. Both battery capacity and charging performance have been increased, allowing for an optimal balance between energy density and charging capacity. On top of these, also improved are the vehicles’ motors, progressive steering, and chassis control systems. As a result, the models fascinate with dynamic driving characteristics that are typically Audi.

Audi’s success in the Philippines forms part of the brand’s sustained upward drive worldwide during the first half of 2023. Audi recorded a significant increase in deliveries during the period, with the biggest growth rate among the company’s product segments coming from sales of 100% electric vehicles.

In the first six months of 2023, Audi’s global deliveries of 100% electric models surged 51.2% from the same period in 2022. This performance represents 75,647 vehicles sold from January to June this year, compared to the 50,033-unit tally during the same six months last year. As a result, the share of 100% electric vehicles in the brand’s total deliveries rose to 8.2%.

The leap in deliveries of Audi’s 100% electric models proves the brand’s successful path to becoming a provider of sustainable premium mobility. Starting in 2026, Audi will only introduce 100% electric cars to the global market and will offer around 20 models by then. In 2027, the brand aims to offer one 100% electric model in each core segment.

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Microsoft says Russia-linked hackers behind dozens of Teams phishing attacks

August 3, 2023 | 11:32 am

SAN FRANCISCO – A Russian government-linked hacking group took aim at dozens of global organizations with a campaign to steal login credentials by engaging users in Microsoft Teams chats pretending to be from technical support, Microsoft researchers said on Wednesday.

These “highly targeted” social engineering attacks have affected “fewer than 40 unique global organizations” since late May, Microsoft researchers said in a blog, adding that the company was investigating.

The Russian embassy in Washington did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The hackers set up domains and accounts that looked like technical support and tried to engage Teams users in chats and get them to approve multifactor authentication (MFA) prompts, the researchers said.

“Microsoft has mitigated the actor from using the domains and continues to investigate this activity and work to remediate the impact of the attack,” they added.

Teams is Microsoft’s proprietary business communication platform, with more than 280 million active users, according to the company’s January financial statement.

MFAs are a widely recommended security measure aimed at preventing hacking or stealing of credentials. The Teams targeting suggests hackers are finding new ways to get past it.

The hacking group behind this activity, known in the industry as Midnight Blizzard or APT29, is based in Russia and the UK and US governments have linked it to the country’s foreign intelligence service, the researchers said.

“The organizations targeted in this activity likely indicate specific espionage objectives by Midnight Blizzard directed at government, non-government organizations (NGOs), IT services, technology, discrete manufacturing, and media sectors,” they said, without naming any of the targets.

“This latest attack, combined with past activity, further demonstrates Midnight Blizzard’s ongoing execution of their objectives using both new and common techniques,” the researchers wrote.

Midnight Blizzard has been known to target such organizations, mainly in the US and Europe, going back to 2018, they added.

The hackers used already-compromised Microsoft 365 accounts owned by small businesses to make new domains that appeared to be technical support entities and had the word “microsoft” in them, according to details in the Microsoft blog.

Accounts tied to these domains then sent phishing messages to bait people via Teams, the researchers said. — Reuters

Vietnam to export 2 million swine fever vaccine doses to PHL by Oct.

August 3, 2023 | 11:29 am

HANOI – Vietnam will export two million vaccine doses against African swine fever to the Philippines by October, the government said on Wednesday, one week after it approved domestic use of the world’s first commercial vaccines against the disease.

African swine fever has for years disrupted the $250 billion global pork market.

In the worst outbreak in 2018-19, about half the domestic pig population died in China, the world’s biggest producer, causing losses estimated at over $100 billion.

The vaccine to be shipped to the Philippines is produced for commercial use by AVAC Vietnam JSC, the government said in a statement, adding the company has already shipped 300,000 doses to the Philippines since its approval.

The shipment “signaled huge export potential”, the government said.

Vietnam late last month approved domestic commercial use of two African swine fever vaccines – NAVET-ASFVAC and AVAC ASF LIVE – co-developed by Vietnamese companies and researchers from the United States.

More than 650,000 doses of the vaccines had recently been tested on hog herds in 40 provinces throughout the country, with an efficacy rate of 95%, according to the government. — Reuters

OctaFX’s guide to safe trading

August 3, 2023 | 10:13 am

In 2021, bank fraud losses in the Philippines reached a staggering $17 million, and credit card fraud surged by 21% since the start of the pandemic. A concerning report projects that cybercrimes might result in a massive $10.5 trillion loss worldwide each year by 2025. Additionally, crypto-related hacks and frauds further compromise trust, with a global total of $428 million in Q3 2022..

With the increasing popularity of online trading, it is essential for traders to be well-informed about the potential risks and best practices to safeguard their investments. Recognizing this need, OctaFX has created a step-by-step guide that covers all aspects of safe trading, empowering traders to make informed decisions and protect their capital.

To avoid scams, follow these steps:

Verify your email addresses
Download apps from official stores
Avoid granting access to any third party applications
Use VPN
Update your apps
Avoid visiting suspicious URLs
Log into the official website only
Do not grant any app permissions
Not being insatiable
Never share your password, pin, or account credentials with anyone even when it seems like a good idea

Dynati, a crypto and forex trader, in an episode of UsapangFX, shared tips, do’s and don’ts to new traders, “start small, so you can make better decisions. Invest only what you can afford to lose. When trading, you decide not emotionally, but logically.”, among others.

Traders can access OctaFX’s UsapangFX through this link and take the first step towards becoming a more informed and confident trader.

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Panel OK’s mining fiscal regime bill

August 3, 2023 | 12:35 am

THE HOUSE Ways and Means Committee approved on Wednesday a new substitute bill establishing a fiscal regime for the mining sector, which will impose a margin-based royalty and windfall profits tax on miners.

Under the approved substitute bill, large-scale metallic mining operations within mineral reservations will be subject to a 3% royalty rate of the gross output of minerals or mineral products extracted.

Large-scale metallic mining operations outside mineral reservations will be slapped with a margin-based royalty on income from metallic mining operations.

For instance, miners with margins of 1% up to 10% will be subject to a 1% rate. The royalty rate can go up to as high as 5% for those with margins above 70%.

Under the bill, small-scale mining operations will be imposed a royalty rate equivalent to 1/10 of 1% of gross output of minerals or mineral products extracted or produced pursuant the People’s Small-scale Mining Act of 1991.

A windfall profits tax will also be slapped on metallic mining operations based on their respective margins. Miners with margins of more than 35% up to 40% will be imposed a rate of 1%, while those with margins of more than 80% will be imposed a 10% rate.

Ronald S. Recidoro, executive director of the Chamber of Mines of the Philippines, said its members representing large-scale contractors “feel that further increases (in tax) may not be necessary at this time.”

“Nonetheless, if a new fiscal regime for mining is absolutely needed to help the country’s post-pandemic economic recovery and to show the mining industry’s commitment as the gov’t partner in nation building, the Chamber of Mines manifests its support for the aforementioned House bill,” he told the House Committee on Ways and Means on Wednesday.

Mr. Recidoro said the substitute bill proposes a “rational and progressive fiscal regime that will allow [the] government a fair and increased tax take from mining while at the same time ensuring the competitiveness, attractiveness, and sustainability of the country’s mining industry.”

Mr. Recidoro said the proposed new tax structure would result in a higher tax take from the industry “under a profitable scenario.”

“We are preparing for the bicameral conference meetings when the Senate finishes its versions of these measures,” House Ways and Means Committee Chairman and Albay Rep. Jose Ma. Clemente S. Salceda said in a statement.

The Senate has yet to file a mining fiscal regime bill, despite this being a priority measure listed in President Ferdinand R. Marcos, Jr.’s State of the Nation Address.

The substitute bill approved by the House panel on Wednesday is different from the one approved by the committee in August 2022. The Chamber of Mines of the Philippines last year opposed the bill that sought to raise the effective tax rate on mining to 51% from 38% and impose a 5% royalty on the market value of gross output for large-scale mining operations.

Last month, Finance Secretary Benjamin E. Diokno said Congress needs to promptly pass tax reform legislation for the mining industry, saying foreign investors are likely to find a simplified tax regime more attractive.

He said the goal is to harmonize the tax treatment of mining that takes place in designated reservations with that of operations outside reservations. — Beatriz Marie D. Cruz

DBM submits P5.77-trillion national budget to House

August 3, 2023 | 12:34 am

Metro Manila subway — PHILIPPINE STAR/MICHAEL VARCAS

By Beatriz Marie D. Cruz, Reporter

THE MARCOS administration submitted to Congress on Wednesday its proposed P5.768-trillion national budget for 2024, which sought to increase allocations for education, infrastructure, agriculture and defense.

The 2024 National Expenditure Plan (NEP) is 9.5% higher than this year’s budget and is equivalent to 21.7% of the gross domestic product (GDP).

“The proposed budget seeks to provide the necessary funds for the operations of government and for the continuing pursuit of our plan for economic transformation,” President Ferdinand R. Marcos, Jr. said in his budget message.

As mandated by the Constitution, the education sector received the biggest allocation at P924.7 billion, 3.3% higher than this year’s budget. This includes P51.12 billion for the implementation of the Universal Access to Quality Tertiary Education program, P12.04 billion for textbooks and other instructional materials and P11.71 billion for feeding programs in schools.

The Department of Education alone will see a 5.37% increase in its budget to P758.6 billion for 2024, as most public schools are now implementing in-person classes.

“Infrastructure development is one of the key drivers of our continuing economic growth. As such, we will sustain this momentum through the ‘Build, Better, More’ program with P1.42 trillion, equivalent to 5.3% of gross domestic product,” Budget Secretary Amenah F. Pangandaman said during a briefing at the House of Representatives.

She noted the program will prioritize physical connectivity infrastructure such as road networks and railway systems, particularly the North-South Commuter Railway System and the Metro Manila Subway Project Phase 1.

The Department of Public Works and Highways received the biggest allocation among departments with P822.2 billion, but this was 8% lower year on year. Of this, P148.1 billion will go to building or improving roads, while P115.6 billion will be allotted for preventive maintenance of existing roads.

On the other hand, the Department of Transportation (DoTr) saw its proposed 2024 budget double to P214.3 billion from P106 billion this year, as the government sees the need to improve mass transport system and reduce road congestion.

The bulk of the DoTr budget or P163.7 billion will go to the rail transport program.

Meanwhile, the agriculture sector has been allocated P181.4 billion for next year, 4.5% higher than this year’s budget.

Ms. Pangandaman said the NEP continues to support programs that boost the local production of rice, corn and other high-value crops.

For instance, the National Rice Program has been allotted P30.87 billion, while the programs for corn and high-value crops will receive P5.28 billion and P1.94 billion, respectively. The budget also allocated P10 billion for the Rice Competitiveness Enhancement Fund.

The budget also included P17.27 billion to be allotted for farm-to-market roads in key production areas, and P31.18 billion to irrigate farmlands.

Under next year’s budget, the Department of Health will receive P306.1 billion, 2.7% lower than this year’s budget. The Philippine Health Insurance Crop. will get a P101.51-billion budget.

The Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) saw a 5.2% increase in next year’s budget to P209.9 million.

“In support of the Social Protection Floor Framework, a higher allocation of P112.8 billion will be provided to assist 4.4 million households under the DSWD’s Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program,” Ms. Pangandaman said.

Another P1.89 billion will go to the food stamp program, while the budget for the social pension for indigent citizens was doubled to P49.81 billion.

The budget for the Department of National Defense was also increased by 14.16% to P232.2 billion.

However, the budget for the labor and employment sector dropped by 14% to P40.5 billion. This includes the allocation for the Departments of Labor and Employment and Department of Migrant Workers.

“The budget for social services and protection looks to fall with cuts or only increments in the budgets for social welfare, labor, health and housing. Even the budget for environmental protection is cut. On the other hand, there are hugely disproportionate increases in the budgets for infrastructure, military and police, and debt servicing,” Jose Enrique A. Africa, IBON Foundation executive director, said in a Viber message.

Around 11.6% or P670.5 billion of the 2024 proposed national budget will cover interest payments on the government’s domestic and foreign debt.

Terry L. Ridon, a public investment analyst and convener of thinktank InfraWatch PH, also expressed concern over the increase in the defense budget in “stark contrast to significant cuts in essential agencies, including health and labor and employment.”

“The Marcos Jr. administration has set up a national budget proposal that is largely dysmorphic and full of misprioritization. Congress has a lot of questioning — and correcting — to do,” he said in a Viber chat.

Meanwhile, the Development Budget Coordination Committee will hold a briefing before the House Committee on Appropriations on Aug. 10.

Marikina Rep. Stella A. Quimbo, vice-chairman of the Committee on Appropriations, said the House is targeting to begin plenary debates on the budget on Sept. 18, and approve it on third reading by the end of September.