Bohol agrarian reform beneficiaries get titles for subdivided land

June 26, 2022 | 6:21 pm

LAND titles for a partitioned 51.93-hectare farm area in the town of Carmen in Bohol were recently distributed to 40 beneficiaries, according to the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR).

In a statement on Sunday, the agency said the agrarian reform beneficiaries received electronic certificates of land ownership award or e-CLOAs.

One of the e-CLOA recipients was 86-year-old Andiana Baquilid, who has been tilling the land for years.

“The DAR is doubling its effort to fortify our farmers’ land tenure security so that they can pass these lands to the next generation,” DAR Central Visayas Director Romeo L. Reyes said.

“We would continue to support them in making these lands productive,” he added.

The partition of farmlands under the government’s land reform program is undertaken through the Support to Parcelization of Lands for Individual Titling Project. It determines exact boundaries for individual owners of previously awarded lands under collective titles.

Continuing transformative fiscal reforms

June 26, 2022 | 6:00 pm

President-elect Ferdinand Marcos, Jr.’s Cabinet is still incomplete, with mere days remaining until his official inauguration. As of this writing, notable vacancies include Health and Energy, while Marcos has himself taken up the challenge of being Agriculture Secretary. Despite these pending appointments, one must concede that Marcos has generally allayed the concerns and uncertainty over his economic team. The incoming team is a mix of technocrats mostly with track records from previous administrations: Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) Governor Felipe Medalla, Economic Planning Secretary Arsenio Balisacan, Budget Secretary Amenah Pangandaman, and the primus inter pares in the team, Finance Secretary Ben Diokno.

The success of any administration will depend heavily on the team of leaders and technocrats he surrounds himself with. Even while one may rightly criticize outgoing President Rodrigo Duterte’s record on human rights and rule of law, one cannot deny that crucial economic reforms were pushed and enacted by his economic team. Marcos’ election is arguably a reflection of our electorate’s collective desire to continue the agenda of the outgoing administration. And while Marcos was elected with a significant majoritarian mandate and will be enjoying the gains from these reforms, he will be inheriting a vastly different economic situation than what his predecessor faced upon entering office.

Duterte’s economic team demonstrated the political capital and technical soundness to shepherd the passage of TRAIN (Tax Reform for Acceleration and Inclusion) and health taxes even without a fiscal crisis, as well as Corporate Recovery and Tax Incentives for Enterprises (CREATE) as part of the response to the COVID-induced economic recession. Marcos, on the other hand, must deal with a persistent pandemic, a tightening fiscal situation, and a hostile global environment characterized by high inflation and economic slowdown.

The aforementioned reforms under the Duterte administration created the conditions for sustained growth, but then came the pandemic, and the economy tanked (-8.6% of GDP in 2021). The said reforms still provided some cushion, but the high government deficit precipitated by the pandemic has given rise to significantly higher debt — P3.2 trillion above pre-pandemic levels with a resulting 60.4% debt-to-GDP ratio as of 2021.

Given the current debt situation, the government will need to raise P249 billion in incremental revenues every year for 10 years to return to the previous debt ratio. This could be achieved by vastly cutting spending on social services or by continuing to finance debt with additional borrowing. However, neither approach will give us the space to continue productive spending, to provide buffers to respond to economic shocks, and to ultimately out-grow the pandemic-induced debt and hit our developmental targets. Thus, Marcos must pursue strategic fiscal reforms in the same vein that Duterte did; he must pursue fiscal consolidation and resource mobilization.

The outgoing Department of Finance (DoF) has provided a blueprint for such a fiscal consolidation measure, which is expected to raise P374.6 billion in incremental revenues every year. The measure is a combination of the remaining reforms from the Comprehensive Tax Reform Program (CTRP), critical health taxes, several excise taxes with a sumptuary purpose, value-added tax (VAT) reforms, and further efforts to improve tax administration.

Package 1 of the DoF’s proposed fiscal consolidation includes the yet-unpassed packages on Passive Income and Financial Intermediary Taxation and Real Property Valuation and Assessment Reform of CTRP; continuing VAT reforms; reforms to the Motor Vehicle User’s Charge; and tax reforms on mining, gaming, and luxury and non-essential goods. These all fit the mold of the CTRP.

Package 1 also includes a deferment of the second tranche of the Personal Income Tax (PIT) schedule of TRAIN. The first tranche of PIT reforms in TRAIN has already provided immediate tax relief for the middle class, and its proposed deferment from 2023 to likely more favorable fiscal conditions in 2026 will provide annual incremental revenues of P97.7 billion. Also included in Package 1 is the introduction of value-added tax on online and digital services, which could raise P13.2 billion in annual incremental revenues. With all these measures included, Package 1 is expected to generate P247.8 billion.

Past sin tax reforms have demonstrably shown that excise taxes designed to modify consumption behaviors can significantly improve health outcomes while generating much-needed revenue for the government to spend on health and other social services. Thus Package 2 includes continuing health taxes on alcohol, tobacco, e-cigarettes, sugar-sweetened beverages, and additionally, non-nutritious food, which amount to P91.4 billion in annual incremental revenue. Package 2 also includes further reforms on petroleum and coal taxes, which, despite the long-term economic and environmental benefits, will likely be more difficult to pass due to the ongoing inflation episode.

Within a month’s time, incoming Finance Secretary Diokno plans to unveil the Marcos administration’s full fiscal program which will hopefully align with these fiscal consolidation measures. Diokno has in the past been a strong advocate of improving tax administration and will be instrumental in introducing further improvements and implementing the tax administration reforms enacted in the Comprehensive Tax Reform Package; sustaining the digitalization efforts of the Bureau of Internal Revenue and Bureau of Customs; and capturing transactions which have migrated to the digital economy.

In reckoning with economic history, we must consider not just how these reforms have contributed to growth, but, more significantly, how these reforms have contributed to the transformation of the economy and society in the long run. President Marcos Jr., through these reforms and together with his economic team, can continue to transform the fiscal institutions of our nation.

AJ Montesa heads the fiscal policy program of Action for Economic Reforms.

Let capitalism help save Philippine education

June 26, 2022 | 5:55 pm

If I have any advice to the incoming administration, it’s this: let capitalism help save the Philippines.

I have already written about how capitalism can be a strong force in my essay on “Capitalism and Philippine development.”

However, allow me to explain further. I was spurred to write about how capitalism can save the Philippines in a discussion with my friend, fellow columnist, and fellow Foundation for Economic Freedom member, Boo Chanco, about Philippine demography. I told Boo that I am relatively optimistic about the Philippine economy because of its youthful demographic profile. While the average age in the Philippines is 23, neighboring countries are seeing precipitous aging and decline in replacement fertility rates. The average age in Japan, for example, is 48 years old, in Taiwan, it’s 42 years, and in Thailand, 40 years.

Boo countered that our large and young population isn’t an asset because a significant majority have few educational skills, made worse by the lockdowns caused by the pandemic. The Philippines is dead last in the PISA (Program for International Student Assessment) results.

However, I will tell Boo that there’s a fix, unlike declining fertility rates and demographic decline, which are almost impossible to reverse.

The fix is capitalism or letting the private sector provide the public goods.

I would let the private sector provide practical and useful training to high school and college graduates with an apprenticeship program. If our graduates lack math skills or language skills, let companies provide the training. If companies provide the training, they will know what skills are required and what is obsolete, unlike schools. They will also seek the most efficient way to train the apprentices because they want them to be productive in the shortest possible time.

This isn’t possible presently because the Labor Code limits an apprenticeship program to six months and to technical industries only.

Another way to catch up is for the private sector to get involved in mass public education from the primary to the tertiary level. Why? Because students from private schools perform significantly better than students from public schools. The 2018 PISA report showed that in reading, 39% of private school students were above minimum proficiency level, compared to only 21% of those from public schools. In math, private school students were 35% above minimum proficiency level versus 15% for public schools.

According to educators Dr. Vicente Paqueo and Dr. Victor Limlingan, the three international assessments (Program for International Student Assessment, Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study, and even our own Department of Education), concluded that “students from private schools performed significantly better than those from public schools.”

Unfortunately, the private education sector is in crisis. The state has been giving them unfair competition, raising public school teachers’ salaries, for example, without demanding accountability for performance. This has caused many teachers in private schools to transfer to public schools.

The lockdown has also caused many private schools to close. According to Drs. Paqueo and Limlingan, 865 private schools have closed and about half are considering closure.

At the tertiary level, the state has also been giving private schools unfair competition. One of the worst pieces of legislation that has come out from Congress is the Universal Tertiary Education or Free College Tuition Law, pushed by former Senator Bam Aquino.

That law subsidizes state universities and colleges to enable students to attend school without paying for tuition. It’s a terrible law because it rewards SUCs (State Universities and Colleges) whether they perform well or not in producing graduates and it provides free tuition to the rich as well as poor students. Instead of using the money to give scholarships directly to poor students and letting them decide which school to attend, the Free College Tuition law exacerbates inequality.

A recent study, “On the Income Advantage of Course Choices and Admissions: Evidence from the University of the Philippines” by Sarah Daway-Ducanes, Elena Pernia, and Vincent Gerald Ramos, provides evidence for an “income advantage” in the UP admissions systems: applicants coming from higher-income families have a higher likelihood of being admitted to the UP system and into their first-choice courses. In other words, higher-income students are likely to benefit more from the Free College Tuition Law than lower-income students.

This provides further proof of the contention of Dr. Babes Orbeta and Dr. Vicente Pacqueo that only 12% of poor-income households are likely to benefit from the free college tuition law given the composition of enrollees in SUCs, which are predominantly from high-income families.

Since the performance of the private school sector is much better than the public-school education system, the government should consider public-private partnerships in education. One way is to expand the Government Assistance and Subsidies to Education Act (RA 8545). Surveys also show that parents prefer to make the choice of which school their children go to, rather than being forced to attend a poorly performing public school.

The huge subsidy being given to SUCs under the Free College Tuition Law should also be scrapped and converted into a scholarship program for the poor if that is politically feasible.

However, Filipino students’ performance in international assessment tests is behind their Asian peers, whether from public or private schools. The problem is complex — from lack of school materials, poor school curriculum, overcrowding, and poorly written textbooks, to malnutrition.

Agricultural Economist Dr. Karlo Adriano says that there’s a clear association between protein intake and performance in the PISA tests, i.e., the lower the protein consumption, the lower the test scores in PISA. In other words, malnutrition is a leading cause of our students’ underperformance. If they go to school hungry, they will lack the concentration and energy to study and absorb.

Clearly, nutrition should be part of the solution to the country’s educational crisis. The solution would range from school or even pre-school feeding programs, to programs to make food more affordable to the poor. On the latter, there would be a need to liberalize the importation of corn, a key feed ingredient for pork and chicken production, but at the same time, to encourage bigger and better farms. Studies show that small-scale agriculture and small-scale livestock production are causes of low productivity and vulnerability to biosecurity threats, such as the African Swine Fever.

However, is the public education sector hopeless compared to the private education sector? No. The fact of the matter is that while private school students perform better than public school students, Filipino students, both public and private, still perform poorly in comparison to their Asian peers.

Aside from poor nutrition, part of the answer lies in our poorly-designed curriculum. One educator I talked to cited a SEAMEO (Southeast Asian Ministers of Education Organization) study on basic education in Southeast Asia. It found that: “The amount of time allotted for teaching social studies in the Philippines, under the term makabayan, is disproportionately high compared with those in the other countries (300 minutes per week in grades 1-3). Social studies is not taught in Brunei Darussalam and Malaysia until grade 4 while Singapore offers it for only 30 minutes per week. Starting from grade 4, under humanities, 60 minutes per week is allocated by Malaysia and 90 minutes per week by Brunei Darussalam and Singapore.”

In other words, Filipino children spend less time acquiring basic skills in literacy, numeracy, and communication than their Asian counterparts.

Our educational problems are daunting. Government can’t solve it alone. As with tackling the COVID-19 pandemic, the government must adopt a whole nation approach and partner with the private sector in solving our educational crisis.

I have always contended that the government should focus on education, rather than land distribution, as an equalizing reform. Unlike land distribution, which involves forcible dispossession of the landlord in favor of the tenant (hence, zero-sum), education is the only asset that won’t be resisted by the ruling class. Education is the only good when given away enhances the giver. Both become more productive with deeper interaction. Everybody wins.

In pushing for this equalizing reform, let us let capitalism help save Philippine education.

Calixto V. Chikiamco is a member of the board of IDEA (Institute for Development and Econometric Analysis).

totivchiki@yahoo.com

Trepidation and hope

June 26, 2022 | 5:55 pm

In four days, Ferdinand Marcos Junior will become the 17^th president of the republic.

I view a Marcos’ leadership with both trepidation and hope. Trepidation because Marcos Junior comes with the stigma of martial law and all the atrocities associated with it. Hope because a Marcos presidency can remedy the structural and cultural defects in government — the defects that impeded our development since EDSA 1986.

Despite the doubts of naysayers, I would like to believe that Marcos Junior can become the transformative president we need and pine for. Let me enumerate a few of the reforms needed to transform the country from a perennial underachiever into a strong, future-ready republic.

The Rule of Law. No nation can progress without the firmament of the law. President Rodrigo Duterte weakened our legal institutions by discounting the law and bamboozling due process whenever expedient. He did so by propagating extrajudicial killings and when he ordered his cabinet not to attend the senate hearings following the Pharmally heist. He imposed the rule of law selectively. We still remember how Sen. Koko Pimentel was given a free pass for breaking COVID-19 rules while others were accosted for the same infraction. We recall, with acrimony, how Gen. Ricardo Morales went scot-free following the P15-billion PhilHealth scandal. All these sent the signal that the rule of law is dispensable.

Marcos Junior must re-establish the sanctity of the law and this is best accomplished by leading by example. However painful it may be, he must allow the wheel of justice to take its course on the corruption and tax evasion charges that plague his family. To drop these charges or interfere with due process will only confirm that impunity and entitlement remains the order of the day. It will cement our culture of privilege.

Income Inequality. Income inequality was the great failure of EDSA. It is what compelled the D and E classes to abandon post-EDSA personalities in favor of the Marcoses. Marcos Junior simply cannot let the masses down by failing to redistribute wealth.

Contrary to common belief, the country’s conglomerates and the entrepreneurial class are not the cause of income inequality. In fact, they are the ones who provide jobs and economic opportunity to the common Filipino. Political dynasties are the culprits. Dynasties hog economic opportunities and lucrative rent-seeking businesses in their respective bailiwicks. They edge out the working class and distort the playing field to their favor.

Solving income inequality starts with breaking the stronghold of political dynasties through the enactment of the Anti-Political Dynasty Bill. Will Marcos have the political will to break the economic stronghold of dynasties considering that most of them are his allies? It will be a test of character on his part.

The Truth. Let’s be honest, this election was won not in a small part by disinformation and the re-framing of history. The milk is spilled and the deed is done.

But as we move forward, the truth must prevail in a Marcos presidency. It is vital for our survival as a nation. Why is the truth important and why are lies destructive? Because lies distort our realities. But remember, our realities are the basis of our laws. So, if our reality is twisted by lies, how can the rule of law prosper?

It takes a real man to tell the truth no matter how uncomfortable it may be. Now that Marcos bagged the presidency, I could only hope that the disinformation will stop.

Truth be told, Marcos Junior need not revise history to sanitize the Marcos brand. All he has to do is do so well that his contributions towards nation building cannot be denied.

Decency in Government. There is no place for invectives, personal attacks and crass talk in the highest office of the land. It does not display strength but rather, an inability to articulate. It shows a pandering character and a penchant for theatrics. Unfortunately, our society is patriarchal and we emulate the behavior of our father figure. No surprise, Filipinos in and out of government have been emboldened to cuss and attack people with vile and vitriol. Duterte made indecency “acceptable” and this is fatal because it erodes our humanity and turns us into a mob.

Marcos was raised as a gentleman. I am confident that he will not go the way of Duterte as far as decency is concerned. But what I would like to see is for him not to tolerate public servants who display such behavior. The signal must be sent that indecency will not be tolerated in our “civilized” society. The same for misogyny, racism, sexism, and hate.

Political Reform. I have no problem changing the form of government from a bicameral system to a parliamentary system for two reasons. First, because our bicameral system is a farce, what with the low quality (academically and experientially) of many legislators. Second, because the legislative branch has ceased to serve as a check and balance of the executive and the judiciary. Rather, the executive has subsumed the legislative to bend to its will without consequence.

The absence of a credible political party system has caused legislators to flit across parties whenever expedient. Most legislators vote according to their political agenda, not according to philosophy or principles.

Political reform must be instituted to correct these defects. The Anti-Political Turncoatism Bill must be enacted into law. In addition, stiff academic, experiential, legal, and moral qualifications must be imposed to ensure that our elected officials are indeed our best and brightest. A one term limit must be sustained too.

Corruption. The Marcos brand is associated with corruption. As incoming president, Marcos Junior has the opportunity to turn this narrative on its head and prove that Marcos stands for good governance. It will not be painless as it would necessitate settling the family’s tax obligations and walking the straight path.

After displaying magnanimity in this manner, Marcos will do well to plug the loopholes in the Anti-Graft & Corruption Act, the Anti-Plunder Act, and the Conduct and Ethical Standards for Public Officials Act. The passage of the Full Disclosure Policy Bill is equally important to foster greater transparency.

Marcos can either confirm the stereotypes about him and his family or prove everyone wrong by being the transformative leader we need. Let us hope he goes the way of the latter.

Andrew J. Masigan is an economist

andrew_rs6@yahoo.com

Facebook@AndrewJ. Masigan

Twitter @aj_masigan

Never again to a Spoliarium

June 26, 2022 | 5:55 pm

Stripped to his bloodied loin cloth, a dead gladiator is dragged by his right arm by a blood-drenched orderly in the spoliarium (abattoir) of the Roman Coliseum. The gladiator had lost in the spectator sport where two combatants fought “sine missione” (to the death) for the entertainment of the emperor and the leering, jeering, blood-hungry public who had jostled and bribed for bleacher seats in the four-story high Coliseum which had a capacity of 50,000.

Dead or near-dead, the losing gladiator was to officially die at the thumbs-down decision “police verso” — of the emperor. And so, the loser lost their life and all possessions. Two Coliseum attendants are seen lugging out the armor, weapons, and raiment of the conquered — all to be turned over to the winning gladiator. “Please, don’t it take all,” the man in white tunic seems to say to those carting off the spoils of the combat. He was the trainer-coach, the lanista of the fallen warrior, who would then need to set up logistics for his next gladiator-trainee. On the right is a woman in blue, mourning the loss of her loved one, the fallen warrior. Behind her is an old man, seeming to be scavenging for leftover food or abandoned things, or perhaps suffering dementia, looking for his dead son. In the gallery box on the left side of the spoliarium, a crowd with various expressions of sadistic voyeurism watches the goings-on.

It is like walking into the spoliarium of the 4^th-6^th century AD, when dramatic gladiator contests ingrained in the minds of the people the awesome might of the Roman Empire and the absolute power of the emperors over human life and rights. Our view of how it was in the Roman era comes from the great Filipino artist Juan Luna’s Spoliarium, which I just described.

Painted over eight months in 1884, it won first prize in the Exposición Nacional de Bellas Artes in Madrid, Spain in 1886. Juan Luna, then 27 years old, was with the group of young Filipino intelligentsia who were studying and living in Spain, imbibing the ambience of European liberal thinking. José Protasio Rizal, then 24, intellectual writer and polymath, was in Madrid with Juan Luna and the group of enlightened young Filipino nationalists active at the end of the Spanish colonial period of the Philippines.

“At a gathering of Filipino expatriates in Madrid, José Rizal enthusiastically toasted the triumphs of his two compatriots had achieved, the other being Félix Hidalgo who won a silver medal, calling it ‘fresh proof of racial equality’” (Guerrero, Leon (1974). The First Filipino: A Biography of José Rizal (PDF) (5^th ed.). Manila: National Historical Commission. p. 112).

In his congratulatory speech, Rizal said, “Luna’s Spoliarium with its bloody carcasses of slave gladiators being dragged away from the arena where they had entertained their Roman oppressors with their lives… stripped to satisfy the lewd contempt of their Roman persecutors, with their honor embodied the essence of our social, moral and political life: humanity in severe ordeal, humanity unredeemed, reason and idealism in open struggle with prejudice, fanaticism and injustice” (Ibid. p. 114).

“Rizal was inspired to carve a mark of his own to give glory to his country by writing his ‘Spoliarium’ since early that year 1884 ‘he had been toying with the idea of a book’ for he has seen and described the painting as ‘the tumult of the crowd, the shouts of slaves, the metallic clatter of dead men’s armor, the sobs of orphans, the murmured prayers…’. Rizal’s book would be called Noli Me Tangere, ‘the Latin echo of the Spoliarium’” (Ibid., pp. 119-120, 122).

Graciano Lopez-Jaena, contemporary and co-nationalist of Juan Luna and José Rizal said, “For me, if there is something grand, something sublime, in the Spoliarium, it is because behind the canvas, behind the painted figures… there floats the living image of the Filipino people sighing its misfortune. Because… the Philippines is nothing more than a real Spoliarium with all its horrors” (quoted by critic Butch Dalisay, philstar.com, July 17, 2006).

The somber chiaroscuro of dark umbers shocked by impressionistic strokes of light on the main figures in the painting urges a sinking mood of loss and helplessness, perhaps even eliciting some hidden guilt from unsure complicity in the strong message of oppression in society. In the shadows are various blurred faces, not even looking at the dead gladiator, thinking their own thoughts. Some art critics might say it was Juan Luna’s demo of the fin de siècle (French: “end of the century”) artistic climate of sophistication, escapism, extreme aestheticism, world-weariness, and fashionable despair. But no.

The muted but discernible red, white, and blue (the colors of the Philippine flag) triangulated in the tableau of the Spoliarium clearly call for patriotism and the defense of the freedoms of the people. Perhaps because Juan Luna was identified with the expat propagandist group of José Rizal in Madrid, it was mothballed after a three-year exhibition in the Museo del Arte Moderno in Barcelona where it was thereafter in storage until the museum was burned and looted during the Spanish Civil War in 1937. The badly damaged Spoliarium stayed for 20 years more in Spain until Generalissimo Francisco Franco turned over the partially restored painting to the Philippines in January 1958.

The Spoliarium was unveiled and exhibited in the Hall of Flags of the Department of Foreign Affairs (the current-day Department of Justice building on Padre Faura St. in Manila) in December 1962. One might wonder why its coming home was not much-trumpeted, but perhaps the Vietnam War that had started in 1961 and raged until 1975 occupied much of the world’s mind including the Philippines then. Before the Vietnam War even ended, Ferdinand E. Marcos, Sr. declared Martial Law in the country in 1972, to last until 1986, when Marcos was ousted in the Feb. 25, 1986 EDSA People Power Revolution. The message of the Spoliarium did not quite jibe with Martial Law.

After painstaking repair and cleaning by restoration artists over some 40 years, the massive oil-on canvas painting, measuring 9.05 meters by 5.59 meters (framed), now hangs floor-to-ceiling in the main gallery at the first floor of the National Museum of Fine Arts in Manila. It is the first work of art that greets visitors upon entry into the museum.

Before the restrictions of the COVID pandemic, throngs used to queue to view the awesome Spoliarium, even to have pictures taken beside it, almost like being in it, like a location shot for its massiveness. Been there, done that. Seen this, seen that. Is it all there is to view the Spoliarium and be part of that impersonal crowd that Juan Luna painted in, the onlookers to the deathly spectator sport, not quite looking at the fallen gladiator and feeling for the meaning of his death?

The Spoliarium Hall was formerly the House of Representatives Session Hall, site of the 1934 Constitutional Convention. It was the first time the Filipinos under American rule were allowed to write a fundamental law that would guide them towards autonomy and independence. Of the 202 delegates to the 1934 Constitutional Convention, three became Presidents of the Philippines, namely, José Laurel, Manuel Roxas, and Elpidio Quirino.

The same venue was previously used for the inauguration of former presidents Manuel L. Quezon in 1935, José P. Laurel in 1943, and Manuel Roxas in 1946 when it was then known as the Legislative Building.

On June 30, 2022, Ferdinand “Bongbong” R. Marcos, Jr. will be inaugurated as the 17^th President of the Philippines — at the National Museum of Fine Arts, in the overpowering aura of the Spoliarium.

Amelia H. C. Ylagan is a doctor of Business Administration from the University of the Philippines.

ahcylagan@yahoo.com

Healthy planet needs ‘ocean action’ from Asian and Pacific countries

June 26, 2022 | 5:54 pm

AS THE Second Global Ocean Conference opens today in Lisbon, governments in Asia and the Pacific must seize the opportunity to enhance cooperation and solidarity to address a host of challenges that endanger what is a lifeline for millions of people in the region.

If done right, ocean action will also be climate action but this will require working in concert on a few fronts.

First, we must invest in and support science and technology to produce key solutions. Strengthening science-policy interfaces to bridge practitioners and policymakers contributes to a sound understanding of ocean-climate synergies, thereby enabling better policy design, an important priority of the Indonesian Presidency of the G20 process. Additionally, policy support tools can assist governments in identifying and prioritizing actions through policy and SDG (Sustainable Development Goals) tracking and scenario development.

We must also make the invisible visible through ocean data: just three of 10 targets for the goal on life below water are measurable in Asia and the Pacific. Better data is the foundation of better policies and collective action. The Global Ocean Accounts Partnership (GOAP) is an innovative multi-stakeholder collective established to enable countries and other stakeholders to go beyond GDP and to measure and manage progress towards ocean sustainable development.

Solutions for low-carbon maritime transport are also a key part of the transition to decarbonization by the middle of the century. Countries in Asia and the Pacific recognized this when adopting a new Regional Action Program last December, putting more emphasis on such concrete steps as innovative shipping technologies, cooperation on green shipping corridors, and more efficient use of existing port infrastructure and facilities to make this ambition a reality. Finally, aligning finance with our ocean, climate and broader SDG aspirations provides a crucial foundation for all of our action. Blue bonds are an attractive instrument both for governments interested in raising funds for ocean conservation and for investors interested in contributing to sustainable development in addition to obtaining a return for their investment.

These actions and others are steps towards ensuring the viability of several of the region’s key ocean-based economic sectors, such as seaborne trade, tourism and fisheries. An estimated 50% to 80% of all life on Earth is found under the ocean surface. Seven of every 10 fish caught around the globe come from Pacific waters. And we know that the oceans and coasts are also vital allies in the fight against climate change, with coastal systems such as mangroves, salt marshes, and seagrass meadows at the frontline of climate change, absorbing carbon at rates of up to 50 times those of the same area of tropical forest. But the health of the oceans in Asia and the Pacific is in serious decline: rampant pollution, destructive and illegal fishing practices, inadequate marine governance and continued urbanization along coastlines have destroyed 40% of the coral reefs and approximately 60% of the coastal mangroves, while fish stocks continue to decline and consumption patterns remain unsustainable. These and other pressures exacerbate climate-induced ocean acidification and warming and weaken the capacity of oceans to mitigate the impacts of climate change. Global climate change is also contributing to sea-level rise, which affects coastal and island communities severely, resulting in greater disaster risk, internal displacement, and international migration.

To promote concerted action, ESCAP (the Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific), in collaboration with partner UN agencies, provides a regional platform in support of SDG14, aligned within the framework of the UN Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development (2021-2030). Through four editions so far of the Asia-Pacific Day for the Ocean, we also support countries in identifying and putting in place solutions and accelerated actions through regional dialogue and cooperation.

It is abundantly clear there can be no healthy planet without a healthy ocean. Our leaders meeting in Lisbon must step up efforts to protect the ocean and its precious resources and to build sustainable blue economies.

Armida Salsiah Alisjahbana is an under-secretary-general of the United Nations and executive secretary of the Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP).

Monkeypox is not yet a global health emergency — WHO official

June 26, 2022 | 5:48 pm

LONDON — Monkeypox is not yet a global health emergency, the World Health Organization (WHO) ruled on Saturday, although WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said he was deeply concerned about the outbreak.

“I am deeply concerned about the monkeypox outbreak, this is clearly an evolving health threat that my colleagues and I in the WHO Secretariat are following extremely closely,” Mr. Tedros said in a statement.

WHO said in a separate statement that although there were some differing views within the committee, they ultimately agreed by consensus that at this stage the outbreak is not a Public Health Emergency of International Concern (PHEIC).

The “global emergency” label currently only applies to the coronavirus pandemic and ongoing efforts to eradicate polio, and the U.N. agency has stepped back from applying it to the monkeypox outbreak after advice from a meeting of international experts.

There have been more than 3,200 confirmed cases of monkeypox and one death reported in the last six weeks from 48 countries where it does not usually spread, according to WHO.

So far this year almost 1,500 cases and 70 deaths in central Africa, where the disease is more common, have also been reported, chiefly in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Monkeypox, a viral illness causing flu-like symptoms and skin lesions, has been spreading largely in men who have sex with men outside the countries where it is endemic.

There are vaccines and treatments available for monkeypox, although they are in limited supply.

Some global health experts said WHO may be have been hesitant to make a declaration because its January 2020 declaration that the new coronavirus represented a public health emergency was largely met with skepticism around the world.

But others said the outbreak met the criteria to be called an emergency.

Gregg Gonsalves, an associate professor of epidemiology at Yale University who advised the committee but who is not a member of WHO, told Reuters by email on Saturday that he thought the decision was “misguided”.

“It met all the criteria but they decided to punt on this momentous decision,” he said. — Reuters

UK PM Johnson aims to stay in power until mid-2030s

June 26, 2022 | 5:47 pm

KIGALI — British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said on Saturday he aims to remain in power until the middle of the next decade, despite calls for him to quit, which would make him the country’s longest continuously serving leader in 200 years.

Earlier this month, Mr. Johnson survived a vote of confidence by Conservative lawmakers in which 41% of his parliamentary colleagues voted to oust him, and he is under investigation for intentionally misleading parliament.

On Friday Conservative candidates lost two parliamentary by-elections held to replace former Conservative incumbents who had to step down, one after being convicted of sexual assault and the other for watching pornography in the House of Commons.

The by-election defeats suggest the broad voter appeal which helped Mr. Johnson win a large parliamentary majority in December 2019 may be fracturing after a scandal over illegal parties held at Downing Street during coronavirus lockdowns.

Under Conservative party rules, its lawmakers cannot formally challenge Mr. Johnson for another year, but overwhelming dissatisfaction or resignations by a series of senior ministers could make his position untenable.

Britain is also in the midst of its deepest cost-of-living crisis in decades, with inflation at a 40-year high.

Former party leader Michael Howard said on Friday it was now time for Mr. Johnson to go, and Conservative party chairman Oliver Dowden quit after the by-election losses.

However, Mr. Johnson said he wanted to serve a third term in office and remain as prime minister until the mid-2030s to give him time to reduce regional economic disparities and make changes to Britain’s legal and immigration systems.

“At the moment I am thinking actively about the third term and, you know, what could happen then. But I will review it when I get to it,” Mr. Johnson told reporters in Rwanda on the final day of a visit for a Commonwealth summit.

Asked what he meant, Mr. Johnson said: “About the third term … this is the mid-2030s.”

Mr. Johnson must call Britain’s next national election by December 2024, and would need a third election victory by 2029.

If he was still in office beyond early 2031, he would beat Margaret Thatcher’s record as the longest continuously serving British prime minister since Robert Banks Jenkinson, the Earl of Liverpool, who was in office from 1812 to 1827.

Mr. Johnson told reporters that he did not expect to have to fight another internal challenge from within his party, and blamed the by-election defeats partly on months of media reporting of lockdown parties at the heart of government.

“People were fed up of hearing about things I had stuffed up, or allegedly stuffed up, or whatever, this endless — completely legitimate, but endless — churn of news,” he said.

Earlier on Saturday, Mr. Johnson told BBC radio he rejected the notion that he should change his behavior.

“If you’re saying you want me to undergo some sort of psychological transformation, I think that our listeners would know that that … is not going to happen.”

Mr. Johnson refused to comment on a report in The Times newspaper that he had planned to get a donor to fund a 150,000-pound ($184,000) treehouse for his son at his state-provided country residence.

The story comes months after his party was fined for failing to accurately report a donation which helped fund the refurbishment of his Downing Street apartment.

“I’m not going to comment on non-existent objects,” Mr. Johnson said when asked if he planned to use a donor’s money to build the treehouse. — Reuters

Ukraine suffers major setback after the fall of Sievierodonetsk

June 26, 2022 | 5:42 pm

Ukraine-Russia-flag-toy soldiers — Army soldier figurines are displayed in front of the Ukrainian and Russian flag colors background in this illustration taken, Feb. 13, 2022. — REUTERS/DADO RUVIC/ILLUSTRATION

KYIV/POKROVSK — Ukraine special forces remained in Sievierodonetsk directing artillery fire against Russian-backed troops, said an adviser to Ukraine’s president, after the city fell in a major setback for Kyiv as it struggles to keep control of the country’s east.

Ukrainian shelling on Saturday forced Russian troops to suspend the evacuation of people from a chemical plant in Sievierodonetsk, just hours after Moscow’s forces took the city, Tass news agency quoted local police as saying.

The fall of Sievierodonetsk, following weeks of some of the war’s bloodiest fighting, is the biggest defeat for Ukraine since it lost control of the southern port of Mariupol in May.

Ukraine called its retreat from the city a “tactical withdrawal” to fight from higher ground in Lysychansk on the opposite bank of the Siverskyi Donets river. Pro-Russian separatists said Moscow’s forces were now attacking Lysychansk.

The fall of Sievierodonetsk — once home to more than 100,000 people but now a wasteland — transforms the battlefield in the east after weeks in which Moscow’s huge advantage in firepower had yielded only slow gains.

Russia will now seek to press on and seize more ground on the opposite bank, while Ukraine will hope that the price Moscow paid to capture the ruins of the small city will leave Russia’s forces vulnerable to counterattack.

President Volodymyr Zelensky vowed in a video address that Ukraine would win back the cities it lost, including Sievierodonetsk. But acknowledging the war’s emotional toll, he said: “We don’t have a sense of how long it will last, how many more blows, losses and efforts will be needed before we see victory is on the horizon.”

Kyrylo Budanov, Ukraine’s military intelligence chief, told Reuters that Ukraine was carrying out “a tactical regrouping” by pulling its forces out of Sievierodonetsk.

“Russia is using the tactic … it used in Mariupol: wiping the city from the face of the earth,” he said. “Given the conditions, holding the defense in the ruins and open fields is no longer possible. So the Ukrainian forces are leaving for higher ground to continue the defense operations.”

Russia’s defense ministry said “as a result of successful offensive operations” Russian forces had established full control over Sievierodonetsk and the nearby town of Borivske.

Oleksiy Arestovych, senior adviser to Mr. Zelensky, said some Ukrainian special forces were still in Sievierodonetsk directing artillery fire against the Russians. But he made no mention of those forces putting up any direct resistance.

Russia’s Interfax news agency cited a representative of pro-Russian separatist fighters saying Russian and pro-Russian forces had entered Lysychansk across the river and were fighting in urban areas there.

MISSILES RAIN DOWN
Russia also launched missile strikes across Ukraine on Saturday. At least three people were killed and others may have been buried in rubble in the town of Sarny, some 185 miles (300 km) west of Kyiv, after rockets hit a carwash and a car repair facility, said the head of the local regional military administration.

Russia denies targeting civilians. Kyiv and the West say Russian forces have committed war crimes against civilians.

Russian missiles also struck elsewhere overnight. “48 cruise missiles. At night. Throughout whole Ukraine,” Ukrainian presidential adviser Mykhailo Podolyak said on Twitter. “Russia is still trying to intimidate Ukraine, cause panic.”

Ukraine’s top general Valeriy Zaluzhnyi wrote on the Telegram app that newly arrived, US-supplied advanced HIMARS rocket systems were now deployed and hitting targets in Russian-occupied parts of Ukraine.

Seeking to further tighten the screws on Russia, US President Joseph R. Biden and other Group of Seven (G7) leaders attending a summit in Germany starting on Sunday will agree on an import ban on new gold from Russia, a source familiar with the matter told Reuters.

Britain is ready to guarantee a further $525 million of World Bank loans to Ukraine later this year, taking total fiscal support this year to $1.5 billion, Prime Minister Boris Johnson said ahead of the G7 meeting.

“Ukraine can win and it will win. But they need our backing to do so. Now is not the time to give up on Ukraine,” Mr. Johnson said in a statement on Saturday.

‘IT WAS HORROR’
In the Ukrainian-held Donbas town of Pokrovsk, Elena, an elderly woman in a wheelchair from Lysychansk, was among dozens of evacuees who arrived by bus from frontline areas.

“Lysychansk, it was a horror, the last week. Yesterday we could not take it any more,” she said. “I already told my husband if I die, please bury me behind the house.”

Europe’s biggest land conflict since World War II has entered its fifth month, after Russian President Vladimir Putin sent tens of thousands of troops over the border on Feb. 24 and unleashed a conflict that has killed thousands and uprooted millions. It has also stoked an energy and food crisis that is shaking the global economy.

Since Russia’s forces were defeated in an assault on the capital Kyiv in March, it has shifted focus to the Donbas, an eastern territory made up of Luhansk and Donetsk provinces. Sievierodonetsk and Lysychansk were the last major Ukrainian bastions in Luhansk.

Moscow says Luhansk and Donetsk, where it has backed uprisings since 2014, are independent countries. It demands Ukraine cede the entire territory of the two provinces to separatist administrations. — Reuters

Pro-life is not just opposing abortion, Vatican says after US ruling

June 26, 2022 | 5:41 pm

AERIAL VIEW of St. Peter’s Basilica, Vatican City — ALAN LIU-UNSPLASH

ANTI-ABORTION ACTIVISTS should be concerned with other issues that can threaten life, such as easy access to guns, poverty and rising maternity mortality rates, the Vatican’s editorial director said on Saturday.

In a media editorial on the United States Supreme Court’s ruling to end the constitutional right to abortion, Andrea Tornielli said those who oppose abortion could not pick and choose pro-life issues.

“Being for life, always, for example, means being concerned if the mortality rates of women due to motherhood increase,” he wrote.

He cited statistics from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention showing a rise in maternity mortality rates overall and that the rate was nearly three times higher for black women.

“Being for life, always, means asking how to help women welcome new life,” he wrote, citing an unsourced statistic that 75% of women who have abortions live in poverty or are low-wage earners.

He also cited statistics from the Harvard Review of Psychiatry showing that the United States has much lower rates of paid parental leave compared with other rich nations.

“Being for life, always, also means defending it against the threat of firearms, which unfortunately have become a leading cause of death of children and adolescents in the US” he wrote.

The Roman Catholic church teaches that abortion is murder because life begins at the moment of conception and ends with natural death.

Pope Francis has compared having an abortion to “hiring a hit man” to eliminate a problematic person.

But he has tried to steer the US Catholic Church away from seeing abortion as the single, overarching life issue in the country’s so-called culture wars.

The death penalty, gun control, support for families, and immigration are also life issues, he has said.

The Vatican’s Academy for Life praised Friday’s US Supreme Court ruling, saying it challenged the world to reflect on life issues, but also called for social changes to help women keep their children.

US President Joseph R. Biden, a lifelong Catholic, condemned the ruling, calling it a “sad day” for America and labeling the court’s conservatives as “extreme”. — Reuters

PHINMA Corp. to conduct annual stockholders’ meeting through remote communication on July 14

June 25, 2022 | 8:00 am

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ACE Malolos Doctors announces schedule of hybrid stockholders’ meeting on July 18

June 25, 2022 | 12:00 am

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