By: Sheila Crisostomo

The task force will map all foreigners involved in Philippine offshore gaming operations (POGO), according to Dominique Tutay, Bureau of Local Employment director.

MANILA, Philippines — The Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) will create a task force that will lead a crackdown on illegal aliens working in casinos and other gaming facilities in the country, an official said Friday.

The task force will map all foreigners involved in Philippine offshore gaming operations (POGO), according to Dominique Tutay, Bureau of Local Employment director.

“We will look into the validity of their stay because we suspect that not all may have been issued an Alien Employment Permit (AEP),” she said in an interview.

Tutay noted some of the POGO foreign workers may have been issued special working permits from the Bureau of Immigration (BI) but they suspect that many others just hold a visitor’s visa.

Last Thursday, DOLE officials met with their counterparts at the BI, Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corp. (PAGCOR), Department of Justice, Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority, Clark Development Corp. and Philippine Economic Zone Authority.

PAGCOR was “very cooperative with our request to look into the situation of online gamings that they issue license” which are available in Metro Manila, Subic and Clark areas, Tutay said.

DOLE is looking into having the sole authority to issue work permits to POGO workers. Currently, the BI also issues short-term special work permits to foreigners.

“It’s not just about wages but also safety and health standards of the foreign nationals. We want to see to it that their working condition is also within the purview of DOLE,” she clarified.

Tutay also underscored the need to set up a training institution to teach Filipinos how to handle gaming operations.

“They always say (they need) Mandarin-speaking, or those who can understand characters. So why not build the skills of Filipino workers? It should be part of their corporate social responsibilty,” she maintained.

DOLE also proposed that the licenses of gaming firms that employ illegal aliens be revoked.

Under the law, a foreign-sponsored or owned project may have foreign workers, but only up to 20 percent of its entire manpower and only for jobs that cannot be done by Filipinos.

In September, Sen. Franklin Drilon said he learned from industry insiders that there are about 400,000 foreign workers in Metro Manila alone.

Source: philstar.com

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By: Ghio Ong/Paolo Romero, Janvic Mateo

Dr. David San Juan, convenor of Filipino language advocacy group Tanggol Wika, said this possibility is causing worry among the teachers of the Filipino and Panitikan departments in various colleges and universities.

MANILA, Philippines — Removing Filipino and Panitikan as required subjects in college will potentially displace around 10,000 teachers and cause “problematic” changes in the country’s education curriculum, a Filipino language scholar said yesterday.

Dr. David San Juan, convenor of Filipino language advocacy group Tanggol Wika, said this possibility is causing worry among the teachers of the Filipino and Panitikan departments in various colleges and universities.

If not fully dissolved, San Juan said in an interview over dzBB that Filipino and Panitikan teachers will have less workload.

The teachers who might lose their jobs could shift to basic education but San Juan said this could be difficult due to more workload and smaller salary.

“Retooling or retraining of teachers entail a lot of work, if they change a subject to teach,” he said, adding that such move would be “problematic” as teachers would also spend a lot.

San Juan also lamented that teachers and professors who took higher studies in Filipino and Panitikan felt they had been slapped by the order of the Commission on Higher Education (CHED) to remove the mandatory Filipino subjects in the college curriculum, which the Supreme Court (SC) prevented and eventually allowed in its recent decision.

“It’s like saying our discipline is not important when we had been studying and specializing on this for a long time now,” San Juan said.

San Juan, an associate professor of Filipino at De La Salle University (DLSU) according to its website, also opposed the idea of Filipino and Panitikan becoming elective subjects among college students.

He said students have the option not to choose the subjects being electives.

He countered arguments that these subjects are no longer important in college as these are already taught in elementary and high school.

San Juan said Filipino and Panitikan in college could improve further the people’s ability to become more intellectual and make professionals more accessible to the ordinary Filipinos.

The SC recently upheld as constitutional the order of CHED to remove the mandatory Filipino subjects in the college curriculum. The high court previously blocked the CHED order through a temporary restraining order.

Fluency in Filipino needed
Senators also pressed for the restoration of Filipino and Panitikan as among the core subjects in college, citing their importance in promoting nationalism and patriotism.

Sen. Panfilo Lacson said Filipinos and government institutions should be nationalistic enough to enrich the vocabulary and knowledge of the youth in the native tongue.

He lamented that young Filipinos seldom talk to each other or among themselves in Filipino.

Senate President Vicente Sotto III on Thursday said the exclusion of Filipino as a core subject in college goes against the spirit of Article 14 Section 6 of the Constitution, which states that “the Government shall take steps to initiate and sustain the use of Filipino as a medium of official communication and as language of instruction in the educational system.”

“We can see these days among the youth the lack of grasp of the Filipino language and by removing this as a core subject in college or any other school level, I fear this would deteriorate even further,” Sotto said.

With the “beauty and depth” of Filipino language and literature, Sen. Aquilino Pimentel III said the nation can still learn “secrets” from them.

“We’re not yet done uncovering these secrets as we continue to marvel at the beauty of our literature. We can still continue these subjects at the college level,” Pimentel said.

Sen. Sherwin Gatchalian also lamented the lack of knowledge of young Filipinos on the national language and literature with the prevalent use of “taglish” (Tagalog and English).

Sen. Joel Villanueva cited the importance of the subjects in forming the proper Filipino mindset even as he vowed to support legislation to restore the course in college.

Sen. Francis Escudero believes there is no need to legislate the teaching of Filipino, Filipino literature and Constitution in college as “this can be done via executive fiat.”

As this developed, the Department of Education (DepEd) yesterday clarified that the Korean language will only be taught as an elective in a handful of schools in Metro Manila.

Source: philstar.com

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By Madelaine B. Miraflor

Photo Credit: philihappy.com

More than half of the country’s operating metallic mines failed to score “acceptable” in the mine audit done by the Mining Industry Coordinating Council (MICC), which is co-chaired by Environment Secretary Roy Cimatu and Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez.

In a phone interview, Environment Undersecretary for Mining Concerns Analiza Rebuelta-Teh said that 26 of the country’s metallic mines either need minor and major reforms or should be closed down in order to have an “acceptable” operation.

As of now, there are 48 metallic mines operating in the country, 30 of which are nickel, eight are gold, three are copper mines, three are chromite mines, and the remaining four are iron mines.

26 of these companies faced multiple, overlapping reviews over the past year, starting with the suspension and closure orders imposed to them by former Environment Secretary Regina Paz Lopez.

To see whether the orders of Lopez are credible, MICC had to conduct an “objective fact-finding and science-based review” on all the 26 firms, while DENR had to resolve the motion for reconsiderations (MRs) filed to them by 13 miners who tried to dispute their closure and suspension orders.

On Friday, the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) revealed the highlights of the audit carried out by MICC. The review measured the companies’ practices as acceptable (3.0), minor corrections needed (2.0), major reforms needed (1.0) and not acceptable (0).

The review assessed the practices of these miners in terms of legal, technical, environmental, social and economic aspects.

On average, Teh said no companies scored 3 or acceptable, while companies that need minor to major corrections include Oceanagold (Philippines), Inc., Hinatuan Mining Corporation, Carrascal Nickel Corp., Wellex Mining Corp., Marcventures Mining and Development Corp., Citinickel Mines and Development Corp., Aam-Phil Natural Resources Exploration and Development Corp., Lepanto Consolidated Mining Co., Adnama Mining Resources, Inc., Strong Built (Mining) Development Corp., Berong Nickel Corp., Emir Minerals Corp., and CTP Construction and Mining Corp. These companies got scores ranging from 2.08 to 2.92.

The other companies that were reviewed that also got a failed score are Claver Mineral Development Corp., Oriental Synergy Mining Corp., Ore Asia Mining and Development Corp., BenguetCorp Nickel Mines, Inc., Zambales Diversified Metals Corp., Krominco, Inc., Mt. Sinai Exploration and Development Corp., Libjo Mining Corp., Sinosteel Philippines H.Y. Mining Corp., LNL Archipelago Minerals, Inc., Oriental Vision Mining Philippines Corp., and Erramen Minerals, Inc.

Of these companies, three are now at the risk of being closed down, while nine will be suspended.
The DENR, in its decision released on Friday, decided to keep Lopez’s closure orders on Claver, Oriental Synergy, and Ore Asia as well as her suspension orders on Zambales Diversified, Krominco, Mt. Sinai Exploration, Libjo Mining, Wellex Mining 1 and 2., Carrascal, AAMPHIL, Strong Built, and Emir Mineral.

Environment Undersecretary and Spokesman Jonas Leones said that all these miners can still continue operation as long as they will be able to file an appeal to the Office of the President (OP) within 15 days upon receiving the recent decision of the DENR.

Of the 13 firms that filed MRs to DENR, only Berong Nickel was off the hook, only receiving suggestions on how to improve its operations.

Meanwhile, 13 companies still have pending appeal with OP regarding Lopez’s order. Of this, only Lepanto got a positive resolution from Malacañang last year.

Teh said since Lepanto received a “2 plus score” from the MICC audit, the company still have to undertake correction measure.

Source: business.mb.com.ph

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By Malou Dungog

Photo Credit: ksenvironmental.com.au

SUBIC BAY FREEPORT — The Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority (SBMA) urges communities around the Subic Bay Freeport to participate in its recyclable collection project to minimize the release of wastes into the environment and help raise funds for resource conservation.

SBMA Senior Deputy Administrator for Operations Ramon Agregado said during the 5th Recyclables Collection Event (RCE) here Thursday that gathering recyclable wastes is the flipside of SBMA efforts to clean up the coastline and waters of Subic Bay, which is acknowledged as the lifeblood of both tourism and trade in the greater Subic Bay area.

“We should not only endeavor to make this recyclable collection event a periodic institutional activity, but we should strive to make it something bigger that will also encompass the neighboring localities of Olongapo, Zambales and Bataan,” Agregado said.

“This war on waste should not be an exclusive mandate for the SBMA. It should, instead, be a communal effort on the part of various stakeholders in the Subic area so that we can produce more significant results,” he added.

Agregado admitted that since attending the RCE last year, he began to collect recyclable plastics in preparation for this year’s event.

“If this activity affected me and encouraged me to collect recyclable trash, I hope others would also realize that we need to help save the environment in our own small way,” he added.

SBMA’s recyclables collection project is part of the agency’s bigger “War on Waste” program, which has recently included an anti-littering campaign and a ban on the use of single-use plastics in SBMA workplaces.

SBMA Ecology Center manager Ameth Dela Llana said the RCE was undertaken in partnership with Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) and in cooperation with the Bureau of Customs, as well as various treatment, storage and disposal (TSD) facilities like VAG General Merchandising in Pampanga, Genetron International Marketing, Evergreen Environmental Resources, Inc., and Semi-Recycling Joechem in Bulacan.

During the event, SBMA also presented tokens of appreciation to 10 companies inside the Subic Freeport, which delivered the biggest volume of recyclable trash during the 4th RCE.

These are Hanjin Heavy Industries Company (Phils.), Subic Water and Sewerage Co., Nidec Subic, PTT Phils. Corp., Subic Track, Koryo Subic, SGS Subic Bay, Petron Freeport Corp., Subic Bay International Terminal Corp., and Jack Electronics Corporation.

The recyclables brought in by the participating firms, as well as by the community groups and households, are paid for by recyclers.

In some cases, the firms pay for the trash brought in for treatment and subsequent disposal.

Dela Llana said that the SBMA collection program generated proceeds amounting PHP137,000 last year. During the 3rd RCE in 2016, the proceeds reached PHP230,000.

She said the cash proceeds are turned over to the ABS-CBN Lingkod Kapamilya Foundation, which funds the “Bantay Kalikasan” organization that promotes healthy environment for children, and helps communities earn revenue from protecting and turning their natural environment to tourism destinations.

The 5th RCE was held at an open space near the Boardwalk Activity Center here, drawing business locators and residents from both the Subic Freeport and Olongapo City to bring in their solid, hazardous, and electronic wastes to either sell or donate.

Some volunteers also took the time to teach the public techniques in making decorations out of wastes like plastic bottles, straw and food wrappers. (PNA)

Source: pna.gov.ph

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Isinusulong ngayon sa Senado ang panukalang mandatory organ donation. Kapag naisabatas ito, puwede nang magamit ang mga organ ng mga namatay o idineklarang ‘brain dead” para sa mga nangangailangan nito.

Source: news.abs-cbn.com

Bago matapos ang taon, isusulong ni Philippine Red Cross Chair Sen Richard Gordon ang bill na naglalayong gawing mandatory ang pagdo-donate ng organ sa oras na yumao ang isang tao.

Ayon kay Sen Gordon, sa ilalim ng Organ Donor Act of 2019, sa oras na yumao na ang isang Pilipino ay otomatiko nang mapupunta sa isang nangangailangang pasyente ang organ nito.

Ang hirap kasi aniya sa mga kaso ng mga organ donor sa kasalukuyan, sa oras na yumao na ito, hindi pa rin makuha ng ospital ang mga idinonate ng donor dahil ayaw ipagalaw ng mga naiwang pamilya ang katawan nito.

Maganda rin aniyang ang batas na ito upang maiwasan nang maabuso o mapagsamantalahan ang mga mahihirap na Pilipino ibinibenta ang kanilang organ kapalit ng pera, dahil walang sapat na kaalaman tungkol sa mga kumplikasyon at mas malaking gastos na maaaring idulot nito.

Sa mga ayaw naman na maging organ donor, ayon sa Senador, walang magiging problema basta’t susulat lamang ng written consent, na nagsasaad ng hindi pagpayag sa pagiging isang organ donor.

Source: rmn.ph

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