If given a three-minute audience with President Ferdinand Marcos Jr., said former health secretary Jaime Galvez Tan, he will make a strong case for the development of the young population to make the Philippines at par with the fast-growing economies in Southeast Asia. This will be his recommendation to the President: Synergize education, health, agriculture,...
Author: TJ Burgonio (TJ Burgonio)
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‘Get Out of Jail Free’: How plastics offsetting is giving industry a license to pollute
Unwanted plastic is clogging seas and rivers. A ‘green’ scheme involves burning it to make cement. (Editor’s Note: This story was produced with support from Internews’ Earth Journalism Network for the “It’s a Wash” special report. SourceMaterial, a nonprofit investigative journalism organization, was a partner in the story’s production.) After a gruelling day paddling along...
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Hontiveros: Senate should adopt House realignment of secret funds
The Senate can do “no less” than adopt the House of Representatives’ realignment of P1.23-billion in confidential funds in the proposed P5.768-trillion national budget for 2024, Sen. Risa Hontiveros said on Wednesday. “The House has taken the first step institutionally. So I think we in the Senate can do no less because we actually started...
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Gov’t can ill afford Palace’s ‘populist’ policies on rice, says ex-finance official
The Marcos administration’s imposition of a price cap on rice and new prices for palay as well as its subsidy for rice retailers could be “costly” to the government, according to resigned finance undersecretary Cielo Magno. The government can ill afford the costs arising from the three policy packages because these are not part of...
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Marcos urged to push proposed Maritime Zones Act in the face of China’s ‘10-dash’ line map
China’s latest map should not distract the Philippine government from addressing the more “disconcerting” Chinese harassment of Philippine vessels in the West Philippine Sea, according to a foreign affairs and security analyst. If anything, said Lucio B. Pitlo III, the map with a new 10-dash line that still encompasses parts of the Philippines’ 370-kilometer exclusive...
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Mayors unite for good governance and against corruption
It started with a phone call by Baguio City Mayor Benjamin Magalong to like-minded local chief executives in July, shortly after he delivered a speech at the Philippine National Police headquarters in Camp Crame railing against corruption in high places. For that scathing speech, Magalong reaped a heap of “messages of support,” including one from...
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Pelikulove presents anthology of young voices in Cinemalaya Festival
“How to Make an Effective Campaign Ad” reels you in from the opening scene: An inmate swaggers along the corridors of a provincial jail while escorting two young men past rows of crowded cells into the cell of a jailed politician. The young men are scholars of “Gov,’’ and they are there to shoot a...
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Gov’t urged: Defend, assert territorial integrity in West Philippine Sea
The Philippines should step up its joint patrols with other countries around Recto Bank and other reefs and shoals in the West Philippine Sea to forestall any attempt at occupation by the Chinese military, a political analyst said on Tuesday. On June 30, a Philippine military reconnaissance plane spotted dozens of Chinese vessels swarming a...
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14 Filipinos are among Asian Scientist Magazine’s top 100 researchers
Fourteen Filipinos, including CoverStory.ph’s science writer Mario Juan A. Aurelio and environmentalist Anna Oposa, are in Asian Scientist Magazine’s list of top 100 Asian researchers this year. The Asian Scientist 100 list “celebrates the success of the region’s best and brightest, highlighting their achievements across a range of scientific disciplines,’’ the magazine said on www.asianscientist.com....
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‘Let’s not be blind to history’ in enforcing new rice production program
The strongman Ferdinand Marcos Sr. was said to have achieved some measure of success in “Masagana 99,” when farmers harvested more palay per hectare in the late 1970s. Backed by new technology, high-yielding varieties, cheap fertilizers and the construction of megadams in Luzon, the rice production program yielded modest surpluses for farmers for one or...