TACLOBAN CITY– AirAsia Philippines disclosed that it is mulling to revive the Tacloban-Clark, Pampanga route next year.
Steve Dailisan, the company’s communication and public affairs head, said that the move is partly due to the increasing number of passengers coming from this city and the rest of the region.
It was learned from Dailisan that Tacloban City is among AirAsia Philippines top domestic markets, flying four times a week for its Manila-Tacloban flight.
And to further encourage air passengers to patronize AirAisa Philippines, they are offering 20% off on domestic and even international flights this year.
The airline company made a sales blitz in the city last week.
It was learned from Dailisan that the number of air passengers from the region who are using AirAsia Philippines has already reached their pre-pandemic number.
He added that in line with their mission of bridging the distance for all Filipinos, the airline plans to revive their Clark to Tacloban routes, hopefully in 2024.
More than being the home of the longest bridge in the Philippines and as the site of the US General Douglas MacArthur’s landing, this city is the gateway to Eastern Visayas known for its captivating natural beauty including rock formations, waterfalls, sand bars, white sand beaches like Kalanggaman in Palompon, Leyte, and Sambawan Islands off Maripipi town, Biliran, colorful and enchanting festivals, and mouth-water foods. (ROBERT DEJON)
TACLOBAN CITY – The city government of Borongan and Dolores, both in Eastern Samar, has committed to promoting renewable energy to ensure a sustainable future for their communities.
As part of their commitment, Mayor Jose Ivan Dayan Agda of Borongan and Councilor Randy Pomida, representing the municipality of Dolores, entered an agreement with Oxfam Philippines and the ICLEI – Local Governments for Sustainability Southeast Asia Secretariat (ICLEI SEAS) last March 28.
The two areas were chosen to be the pilot site of the renewable energy (RE) program that aims to increase people’s access to sustainable energy and opportunities to scale up renewable energy technologies.
The project is part of Oxfam Philippines’ just energy transition (JET) program to promote a democratized energy governance system in the Philippines and support local governments to establish enabling policy and program environment for accelerated renewable energy transformation.
In his message, Mayor Agda expresses the LGU’s optimism for the success of the RE-Start project in his city.
“Finally all of us realized that the progress of our country lies in the local government units. This will be true that the success of our country in the local government unit, no matter how vulnerable we are in terms of governance, still the local government unit proceed the growth way to success,” he said.
“When people question what RE is and why it’s important, we will inform them that it can provide cheaper electricity that our communities can benefit from,” Agda said, adding that the project can help continue their campaign on environmental protection.
Agda stressed that under his administration, the city government will cooperate with the project because it will help the LGU to become self-sufficient when it comes to energy sources using power generated from natural sources like hydro energy power plants, and help promote environment protection.
Councilor Pomida, for his part, expressed hope that thru this project, energization will reach off-grid communities in Dolores.
Present during the agreement signing were Department of Energy (DOE) Energy Resources Development and Utilization Division chief Lourdes Arciaga, Oxfam Pilipinas Visayas Field Office, Senior Resilience Portfolio Officer Juvilyn Salazar- Dormitorio, and LEDS manager, ICLEI SEAS Pamela Cabacungan.(ROEL T. AMAZONA)
NO TO CHARTER CHANGE. Saying there are pressing concerns that need immediate attention by the country’s leaders, Sen.Imee Marcos said that she is not in favor of any moves to tinker the 1987 Constitution. Marcos was in the region for a two-day visit that ended on April 1 which included a visit at the Abuyog Community College whose president, Clemelle Montallana led in welcoming her to the school.
(PHOTO COURTESY)
Calling it as an ‘anti-Marcos’ Charter
NO TO CHARTER CHANGE. Saying there are pressing concerns that need immediate attention by the country’s leaders, Sen.Imee Marcos said that she is not in favor of any moves to tinker the 1987 Constitution. Marcos was in the region for a two-day visit that ended on April 1 which included a visit at the Abuyog Community College whose president, Clemelle Montallana led in welcoming her to the school. (PHOTO COURTESY)
TACLOBAN CITY-Senator Imee Marcos said that she is not in favor of amending the 1987 Constitution which she describes as an ‘anti-Marcos’ charter.
Marcos said that at this point, any move to tinker with the Charter will not get any majority support from the Senate, saying this early, it is ‘dead on arrival.’
“It’s dead on arrival. It sounds strange coming from a Marcos given that squarely it is an anti-Marcos document,” she said in April 1 media interview.
“The 1987 Constitution was (approved) after the 1986 EDSA (Revolution) so many of its provisions are there to prevent another Marcos of coming into power,” the senator added.
The current Constitution was passed in the aftermath of the EDSA People Power I that swept Corazon “Cory” Aquino into power and ended the 20-year rule of Ferdinand Marcos whose son and namesake is now the country’s President, the senator’s brother.
Talks are again fresh to amend the charter with Sen. Robinhood Padilla leading the campaign promising only the economic provisions would be open for amendments.
However, just like in the previous Charter change campaign, several sectors including political leaders registered their opposition to it.
Sen. Marcos, cousin of Tacloban City Mayor Alfred Romualdez, herself said that while she is not totally closing her doors to amend the 1987 Constitution, she feels and the rest of the senators that there are more pressing concerns facing the nation right now that need to be addressed immediately than tinkering the country’s fundamental law.
“The senators are in full view with the President that it is not a priority. We need to focus on inflation, corruption, jobs, and many more important things right now. The damage to our economy due to the COVID-19 pandemic is apparent to everyone. We have not rec0vered yet,” she said.
Marcos was in Tacloban City on Saturday as part of her visit to other areas in Leyte and Samar leading in providing cash assistance to thousands of beneficiaries of the Department of Social Welfare and Development’s assistance to individuals in a crisis situation.
Leading digital solutions platform Globe and one of the Philippines’ major banks, the Rizal Commercial Banking Corporation (RCBC), have signed a Memorandum of Agreement signifying their commitment to work together against online fraud.
The agreement allows each party to have a direct and round-the-clock communication channel to report any fraudulent activities for immediate investigation and blocking. This is to help address the increasing volume and complexity of financial crimes, identity theft, phishing, SMS spam, and other similar scams and other forms of fraud. These malicious activities severely impact consumers and major stakeholders in telecommunications, e-commerce, finance, and other industries.
The partnership is aligned with Globe’s MoU with the Bankers Association of the Philippines (BAP) which aims to enhance the joint capability of Globe and RCBC to investigate and respond to incidents related to financial scams and fraud, as well as develop proactive measures to prevent further incidents and their escalation. This is expected to promote a more integrated and collaborative approach to information and intelligence sharing and incident reporting.
“Our collaboration with RCBC will enable us to take proactive measures to prevent spam and scams from occurring and strengthen our capabilities to investigate and respond to such incidents. Our commitment to fighting fraud remains strong, and we will continue to work with other institutions and stakeholders to protect our customers from fraudulent activities,” said Globe Chief Privacy Officer Irish Salandanan-Almeida.
“Our partnership with Globe is aligned with our advocacy to educate the public about cybersecurity and is a major step towards enhancing our capabilities in fraud detection and prevention, and customer protection. Having direct coordination will boost our efforts against fraud. We look forward to working together to keep accounts safe and mitigate other cybersecurity threats,” said RCBC Chief Information Security Officer Carlos Tengkiat.
The partnership with RCBC is part of Globe’s long-going efforts to work with major commercial banks and online retailers in the country to quell fraud, particularly scam and spam SMS.
As a result of its intensified crackdown against fraudsters, Globe blocked 85 million bank-related spam and scam messages from January 2022 to January 2023, part of the record high of 3 billion scam and spam messages filtered out within the same period.
Since the transition towards a digital marketplace expands through digital products and services, it also creates a wider terrain for attackers to target non-assuming digital users. This prompted Globe to strengthen measures to protect its customers.
The company has launched various initiatives to address growing threats brought about by spam and scam SMS, including the #StopSPAM portal (#StopSPAM – Report Scams or Spam Messages – Globe) where customers may report these unwanted messages.
#StopSPAM – Report Scams or Spam Messages – Globe.
We invite you to join us in our fight to stop spam by reporting SMS spams or scams, fake websites, and fake soci…
Aside from investing in tools and launching channels to streamline spam and scam SMS reporting both internally and externally, Globe has spent about $20 million to step up its spam and scam SMS detection and blocking system. Its round-the-clock Security Operations Center filters out unwanted messages, including app-to-person and person-to-person SMS from international and domestic sources.
Globe also regularly provides customers with relevant information via social media advisories about fraud, cybersecurity, and data privacy to boost awareness and help them protect themselves against these threats. (PR)
Efforts to clean the environment had been upbeat following advocacies from government and stakeholders to save mother earth. In the face of serious threats to human life and the annihilation of living organisms, people allover the world are getting aware of the risks brought about by environmental degradation. The wanton abuse of natural resources had caused irreparable damage to mother earth.
The unabated and insatiable extraction of minerals, the cutting of trees, the mismanagement of water and other resources of the earth, for more than what is necessary, had deprived the greater majority while a few are raking in wealth by exploiting the wealth of the earth. The denudation of our forests appears to be athe result of rampant cutting without replacement for sustainability.
The depletion of resources due to excessive utilization for commercial purposes had affected the lives of everybody, including the greater portion of the population who do not take a gainful share of the riches being extracted. Those who reap the natural resources seldom take responsibility ensuring the life not just of the present but of generations.
Natural calamities that hit peoples around the globe had been traced in some scientific studies as caused environmental destruction. Deforestation for instance directly affects communities in lowland areas that become catch basins of runoff water from denuded mountains. It too is contributory to the decreased water levels of watersheds. Without trees to hold rainwater, rivers, streams and creeks are also affected.
The adverse effects of environmental destruction are multifarious. It threatens mankind’s safety and security in our only habitat. Man is supposed to be the stewards of mother earth. If the present state of the environment would be the yardstick of such stewardship, it seems we have failed in preserving the earth from irresponsibility of people in various parts of the globe that had gradually been littered with trash.
“AMEN, amen, I say to you, before Abraham came to be, I AM.” (Jn 8,58)
Words of Christ that so confounded the Jews of that time that they started throwing stones at him. These are words Christ said to show that only with him can we have eternal life. Yes, we are meant for eternal life.
Christ himself also said: “I am the way, the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” (Jn 14,6) These words indeed require a lot of faith for them to be taken seriously and to be believed. We need to keep our focus on Christ whatever may be our condition, circumstance and situation in life.
But let’s remember that faith is freely given to us. God shares it with us abundantly, us who are his image and likeness, children of his, sharers of his divine life and nature. We should just accept that gift and make many acts of faith since the reality Christ is telling us is something spiritual and supernatural, something that simply goes beyond our natural capacity to understand.
Death therefore does not have the last word for us. As a Eucharistic Preface of the Mass for the Dead would put it, “Indeed for your faithful, Lord, life is changed not ended, and, when this earthly dwelling turns to dust, an eternal dwelling is made ready for them in heaven.”
We always have to keep in mind that we are meant for eternal life. Our life here on earth is simply transitory. It is meant as a test for us to see if what God wants us to be, that is, to be his image and likeness, is also what we want ourselves to be.
That test will have an end, and that is our death. We should try our best to pass that test. And the secret is to stick to Christ always and as tightly as possible. He has given us his word and teaching, his example, the Church and his very own self in the sacrament of the Holy Eucharist.
Thus, he also said that whoever keeps his word will never see death. (cfr. Jn 8,51) He is referring here to the eternal death of being separated permanently from God. That’s when we fail in the test God has given us in this life. When we are with Christ, believing and living his word and will, our death would actually lead us to our eternal life with God.
St. Paul encapsulated this most wonderful truth of our faith when he said, “For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we will certainly also be united with him in a resurrection like his.” (Rom 6,5)
No wonder then that Christ culminated his redemptive work with his passion and death on the cross. Only then would his own resurrection take place. Christ made this point clear when after being rightly identified by Peter as ‘the Christ of God,’ he proceeded to talk about his passion, death and resurrection.
“The Son of Man must suffer greatly,” he said, “and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests, and the scribes, and be killed and on the third day be raised.” (Lk 9,22)
We have to deepen our belief that with Christ’s resurrection, sin and death have been definitively conquered, and a new life in God is given to us. We are now a new creation, with the power of Christ to conquer sin and death and everything else that stands in the way of our becoming true children of God.
