MANILA City — Climate advocates from civil society and development partners from the private and public sectors gathered at the 1st National Stakeholders Conference 2024 on the Green Climate Fund (GCF) held on June 27 to discuss and develop strategies for addressing the Philippines’ urgent need for sustainable and responsive action through climate financing.
The Philippines is identified as one of the most at risk countries to disasters caused by climate change. The country experiences an average of 20 tropical cyclones every year, with eight to nine making landfall. In the last decade, rampaging tropical cyclones resulted in Php 673.3 billion in losses and damages.
Because of climate change, the Philippines is also increasingly becoming exposed to longer and harsher dry seasons, invariably impacting economic activities and productivity due to effects on the health and well-being of Filipinos.
Beside me is a copy of the book, “The bases of our insecurity,” by Roland Simbulan, a noted U.P. scholar and nationalist. First published in 1985 at the height of Ferdinand Marcos Sr.’s martial law, it is the former’s seminal work on the presence of US military bases in the Philippines. I have kept the book all these decades in reverence to the academically reliable Simbulan, and in reluctant anticipation of a time when I’d gingerly want to open its pages anew.
Such a time has come today.
Good day my fellow Davaoeños,
I am addressing you today regarding the recent mass relief of our police officials ordered by Chief PNP General Rommel Francisco Marbil and implemented by Police Regional Office XI Regional Director PB General Nicolas Torre.
Davao City has earned a longstanding reputation for its commitment to peace and order and security for our people. This did not come by accident. It came about by a combination of political will, committed and dedicated law enforcers and, most of all, citizens’ cooperation.
Vice-President Sara Duterte has become one big enigma to the nation.
Exactly two years after she took her oath of office as the country’s 15th Vice-President, Duterte stepped down both as Secretary of the Department of Education (DepEd) and as vice-chairperson of the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC).
“Mga kababayan, ang aking pagbibitiw ay hindi lulan ng kahinaan, kundi dala ng tunay na malasakit para sa ating mga guro at kabataang Pilipino,” she declared in her resignation speech.
In 1992, when I was a staff member at the newly-established Office of the President-Mindanao, we crunched some numbers and concluded that Mindanao wallowed in negative economic growth at minus 0.48 percent. Although that figure would climb steadily to 4.12 percent by 1995, midway through Fidel Ramos’s presidency, that 1992 backwater fact was telling.
For one, it compared with the national figure—0.4 percent—a similarly dismal reality. For another, it dovetailed a story of how a nation clawed its way out of the abysmal hole of Ferdinand Marcos Sr.’s (FM) martial law years.
It’s been weeks since hundreds of policemen brazenly made their presence felt before the Quiboloy facilities in Davao. Yet I’ve to wrap my head around the fact that it happened at all, now in this day and age when dictatorships are supposed to be a thing of the past.
“The quality of decision is like the well-timed swoop of a falcon which enables it to strike and destroy its victim.” – Sun Tzu
Former President Rodrigo Duterte and Mayor Sebastian Duterte arrived at Tacloban City’s Sto. Niño Church at noon on Sunday just when the last of the morning worshippers were about to leave. It caught nearly everyone by surprise.
The vendors and a few bystanders near the entrance could not believe their eyes. Is it really him?
“I have finally seen him in the flesh,” a vendor muttered, her voice barely above a whisper.
The Philippine Postal Corporation (PHLPost), in collaboration with Museo Orlina, is inviting students, designers, and Illustrators to join the nationwide stamp-design contest in celebration of the Universal Postal Union (UPU) 150th founding anniversary.
The UPU is a specialized agency of the United Nations created on 9 October 1984 under the Treaty of Bern. It unites the postal networks of 192 member countries.
The competition is open to high school and college students, artists, designers, illustrators, and other interested individuals.
