2 January 26-28, 2022 • SoCal ASIAN JOURNAL
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From the Front Page
COVID-19 metrics decline in...
PAGE 1 of Consumer and Business Affairs to monitor pop-up testing sites. Hahn’s letter to the department said that six testing sites in South Gate and Bell Gardens were shut down for shady practices; Hahn said that these pop-up sites would charge people for tests and not send results and/or ask for sensitive information (like Social Security numbers). To report a potentially fake
COVID-19 testing site or a fake testing kit, consumers may call 800-593-8222 or file a complaint to the Dept. of Consumer and Business Affairs. “It is despicable that people are taking advantage of communities during a deadly pandemic,” Hahn said in a statement. “I am directing the county’s Department of Consumer and Business Affairs to monitor popup testing sites across the county
and shut down any sites that are defrauding the public. Testing is one of our most important tools during this pandemic and residents need assurance that they will get accurate test results and their information will be protected.” Hahn said that residents ought to consult the county’s COVID19 website to find legitimate testing sites sponsored by LA County. n
DOH: PH, Metro Manila down to ‘high risk...
PAGE 1 The health chief earlier said that the surge in Metro Manila has already reached its peak. The government’s pandemic task force will meet on Thursday to discuss the possible deescalation of the alert level in the capital region. Metro Manila is currently under Alert Level 3. Aside from Metro Manila, Soccsksargen, Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim
Mindanao, and Mimaropa were also deemed at high risk from COVID-19. Under critical risk classification were Bicol region, Cordillera Administrative Region, Western Visayas, Davao region, Cagayan Valley, Northern Mindanao, Zamboanga Peninsula, Ilocos region, Caraga, Central Visayas, Eastern Visayas, Calabarzon, and Central Luzon. The country’s healthcare
utilization rate was at moderate risk, with total bed use at 52.1% and intensive care unit utilization SWAB TEST BEFORE FLYING. Marivic Radam, an overseas Filipino worker, undergoes a swab test Monday, January 24. before going back to at 49.33%. Daily cases reached record her job in Kuwait. OFWs need to present negative reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction test results before boarding their flights. PNA photo by Gil Calinga highs this month following the detection of local cases of the hyper-contagious Omicron variant. The DOH has reported 3.44 million COVID-19 cases since PAGE 1 Should you choose to use an coming from a legitimate source. the pandemic started. Currently, verified testing sites. unaffiliated testing site, be wary If you feel pressured to provide “Throughout California, fake of the following: there are 262,997 active cases. n personal information, just hang testing sites are sprouting • If a provider insists on up. up to exploit families and documenting your nationality or If you believe that you have individuals seeking COVID tests. immigration status; been scammed by a fake It is important to recognize the • If a provider does not offer COVID-19 testing site, you are kayo na alam ko na hindi ninyo signs of sham testing sites to a notice of privacy practices, or encouraged to report it to your alam (You have to know what I protect both your money and cannot explain how it will use local police or sheriff’s office and know). Why? Because I am the personal information,” said and share your personal data; or file a complaint with the Attorney president and I get all information Bonta. “I urge Californians to do • If a provider insists on General’s Office online at oag. from everybody, and not only that, their part to avoid fake testing accessing your passport or ca.gov/report. [also] from personal experience,” sites by utilizing state resources, driver’s license when you have Free COVID-19 test kits he added. including the California other documents that show your This month, the federal Duterte said it is still “too early” Department of Public Health’s insurance status. government announced for him to talk. website, to find a verified COVID• Identify and avoid the launch of a new federal “Maraming nagtatanong, bakit 19 testing site.” “lookalike” websites: Fake resource where individuals can ako hindi nagsasalita. Maaga pa Tips to avoid COVID-19 testing sites may require you get free FDA-authorized ateh. Gawin lang nilang pulutan testing site scams to sign up online. Beware of home COVID-19 test kits. ‘yung kalaban tapos siyempre Do your part to avoid fake fake websites that purposely Visit COVIDtests.gov, or call 1ako yung reference point nila,” COVID-19 testing sites by look identical to those 800-232-0233 (TTY 1-888-720Duterte said. utilizing the following tips: belonging to well-known, 7489) to order free COVID test (So many people are asking, • Only get tested at verified trusted organizations and state kits from the federal government. why am I keeping mum? It’s still COVID-19 testing sites or agencies. Before entering When placing an order online, too early. Other candidates will through medical groups: To personal information into an you will be redirected to the just use this and I will of course be find a testing site near you online form, always make sure United States Post Office website their reference point.) that is verified to perform that the website you are visiting to fill out an order form. The form “Pati ako madala sa galit. Ma- COVID-19 testing, use the is secure and does not display only requires you to provide your hirap din yan kasi ayaw mo ng California Department of Public misspellings or unfamiliar names first and last name, shipping away eh. Mag-retire na ako, tahi- Health’s test site search tool. You in the URL. address, and an optional email. mik na ang buhay ko (I might get may also search for local testing • Be cautious of unsolicited Remember that no one from dragged into it. That would be sites through your county’s local calls regarding testing sites: A the federal government will hard because I don’t want to get public health department. You can legitimate company or health call, text, or email you to ask for into their fight. I am retiring, al- find your county’s public health clinic will not call, text, or email additional information to help ready looking forward to a more department website at COVID19. you without your permission. you with your order. If someone peaceful life). But I feel that there CA.GOV’s Hotlines and Local If you receive an unsolicited reaches out asking for additional are things I would have to reveal Info web page. Also check with message from an individual, do information such as your credit to the Filipino people because local medical groups to see if not provide the caller or sender card information or Social it’s my job to tell the truth,” he they offer testing services within with any personal information Security number, do not respond added. n their facility. until you have confirmed it is – it is a scam.
Duterte to name ‘most corrupt’ presidential... PAGE 1 corrupt.” “Akala lang kasi ng mga tao malinis pero ‘yung mga nag-transact sa business sa kanya, mga official business, pati yung mga Chinese nagreklamo na na masyadong corrupt daw,” Duterte said. (People thought that candidate is unblemished but those businessmen who has had official transactions with this candidate, even the Chinese are complaining of so much corruption.) “Sabi ko, ang magagawa ko is to charge him for corruption (So I said that what I can do is charge him for corruption). Could be under the Revised Penal Code, it could be under Corrupt Practices Act,” he added. Duterte did not mention any name during his talk, but repeatedly stressed that he is not doing it to personally attack a candidate. “Nakita ko lang. Hindi ako nagsabi na marunong ako. From observation, parang taong nakainom. Malaman mo, medya sumobra siya sa limit ng botelya na kaya nya. Tapos mag-away, tapos magtapang magsalita, masakit. Akala niya may utang ang tao sa kanya,
ganun yan eh,” Duterte said. (I have seen it. I’m not saying that I am better. From my observation, it seemed like this person is drunk. You can see that this person exceeded the limit of bottles that this person can take. Then this person speaks forcefully, hurtful. This person thought the public owes a lot.) “Sabagay, opportunity comes your way, you jump on it. Maybe baka, maybe it’s your destiny to be a president of the republic,” he added. ‘Believe me or don’t’ It is not yet clear when Duterte will name the candidate. However, he said it will be up to the Filipinos whether they will believe him or not with whatever he will disclose. “Ito bahala na kayo (It’s up to you), if you want to believe in me, if you still believe me, I will tell you. But if you reject it at ayaw ninyong maniwala, ang masasabi ko lang, bahala kayo (if you don’t want to believe, what I can tell you is that it’s your choice). Besides, it’s also your country, it’s not only mine,” Duterte said. “Kailangan may malaman
Attorney General Bonta warns Californians to...
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bongbong says will not ask US for help... PAGE 1 described the idea as a “recipe for disaster” which would result in China ceasing talks with the Philippines. “hindi na tayo pakikinggan ng China (China will not listen to use
anymore),” he said. the best way to resolve the dispute, he said, is for Manila to continue diplomatic talks and come up with bilateral agreements with Beijing. he also rejected war as an
cannot pay for at-home tests, testing remains a critical tool to help mitigate the spread of COViD,” a statement from the federal Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services said. Medicaid and ChiP cover athome COViD tests, with no cost to beneficiaries, based on a 2021 Biden administration mandate. Medicare patients are left to seek free tests other ways, including through the administration’s new website, COViDtests.gov, and at community centers. the Medicare program does cover rapid antigen or PCR testing done by a lab without charging beneficiaries, but there’s a hitch: it’s limited to one test per year unless someone has a doctor’s order. More needs to be done, advocates say. the administration has changed some Medicare rules during the pandemic, including improving access to telehealth services and nursing home care, said David Lipschutz, associate director and senior policy attorney at the Center for Medicare Advocacy. “We know that the Medicare program has significant flexibility relative to the public health emergency, and it has demonstrated it has the ability to alter the rules,” Lipschutz said. “We think they should find the flexibility to offer the COViD at-home tests for free.” Q: Why can’t the Medicare program reimburse beneficiaries for the over-the-counter tests or pick up the tab at the pharmacy as commercial health plans will do? the services the Medicare program pays for are spelled out in federal law. “it generally excludes overthe-counter things,” said Casey Schwarz, senior counsel for education and federal policy at the Medicare Rights Center, an advocacy group. the public health emergency was recently extended 90 days, through mid-April, and
the administration could yet decide to expand coverage. Some lawmakers in Congress are urging the administration to cover the tests. “Demanding Medicare recipients — nearly one-fifth the population of the United States — to foot the bill outof-pocket for at-home tests is unfair, inefficient, and will cost lives,” said Rep. Bill Pascrell Jr. (D-N.Y.), who has urged the Biden administration to expand Medicare coverage to include them. it may not be a simple change, as these tests appear to fall into coverage gaps. Medicare Part A covers hospitalization, and Part B generally covers provider-based services like doctor visits and lab tests. Part D covers drugs. “So there’s a little bit of a question of where this type of benefit would fit,” Schwarz said. People in private plans sometimes pay upfront for services and then are reimbursed by their health plan. But that’s not how Medicare works. the program pays providers, not beneficiaries. So that’s another wrinkle that would have to be ironed out. Q: So how can a Medicare beneficiary get free at-home COViD tests? there are a couple of options. this week, the Biden administration launched a website, COViDtests.gov, where anyone, including Medicare beneficiaries, can order free at-home COViD tests. One billion tests eventually will be available. Each residence initially can receive four tests. Four tests is a far cry from the eight monthly tests that people with private insurance can be reimbursed for. But it’s better than nothing, experts say, especially when preventing the spread of COViD requires repeated testing over a period of days. “Four tests is not a lot of tests,” said Juliette Cubanski, deputy director of the program on Medicare policy at KFF. “this is one of the most at-risk
SoCal ASIAN JOURNAL • JANUARy 26-28, 2022 3
COVID-19 Q&A wIth Dr. KImberly ChAng
Get the facts about COVID-19
option to address the matter since the Philippines is not capable of fighting against China. “‘Wag na natin pag-usapan With COViD-19 cases ‘yun [war] dahil hindi talaga reaching record highs due option ‘yun. We must continue to to the highly contagious engage the Chinese,” he said. n Omicron variant, state officials are encouraging Californians to review the basics when it comes to protecting against and preventing the spread of this populations, and to not have deadly disease. the opportunity to buy at-home to answer the many questions tests and get reimbursed puts on our minds – What should i do this whole population on their if i test positive? how effective back foot.” are the vaccines against this new the Biden administration is variant? Do i still need to wear a also providing up to 50 million mask? – Dr. Kimberly Chang of additional free at-home tests Asian health Services is here to to community health centers provide some answers. and Medicare-certified health Q: What should I do if I test clinics. positive? But 50 million tests won’t Dr. Chang: if you test positive, even provide one test apiece whether you have symptoms to the 62 million Medicare or not, you should isolate beneficiaries, Lipschutz said. until you feel better, and it is About 4 in 10 Medicare recommended to test negative beneficiaries are in Medicare before resuming day to day Advantage managed-care plans. activities. You should sleep and these private plans may offer stay in a separate room from free at-home tests to members, those not infected and use a but it’s not required. Enrollees separate bathroom if you can. should check with their plans to Wear a mask around others, see whether that’s an option. even at home. And the people Q: What other free COViD you live with should wear masks testing options are available to at home too. Get a test on day Medicare beneficiaries? 5 or later. if you test negative, in traditional Medicare, you may end isolation. if you are beneficiaries can get rapid antigen still positive or if you still have or PCR diagnostic tests without symptoms, continue to isolate paying anything out-of-pocket until day 10. After you recover, if the test is ordered by a doctor wear a mask around others for or other health care provider and 5 days and continue wearing a performed by a lab. mask in indoor public spaces. the federal government has Q: It seems like the rules for set up more than 10,000 free isolation and quarantine have pharmacy testing sites across changed? How do I know what the country that Medicare to do? beneficiaries can visit as well. Dr. Chang: the California With the recent extension of Department of Public health the public health emergency, website lists the current rules the situation is fluid, and for isolation and quarantine. Medicare beneficiaries may You can also visit the website yet get coverage for at-home for your county department of COViD tests that’s comparable public health. to what privately insured people Q: What should I do if I come now have. into close contact to someone “this is all a moving target,” who tests positive? Lipschutz said. (Michelle Dr. Chang: if you find out that Andrews/Kaiser health News) you have been in close contact This story was produced by with someone who has tested KHN (Kaiser Health News), a positive for COViD-19, you national newsroom that produces should quarantine for 5 days. in-depth journalism about health Count from the day you found out issues. Together with Policy you were exposed. if you are fully Analysis and Polling, KHN is vaccinated, including a booster one of the three major operating shot if eligible, you can skip programs at KFF (Kaiser Family quarantine if you are symptom Foundation). KFF is an endowed free. But still test on day 5, and nonprofit organization providing mask for 10 days. For those that information on health issues to are not fully vaccinated, wear the nation. n a mask around others, even at
why medicare doesn’t pay for rapid at-home... PAGE 1
Date lin e USa
home. test on day 5, and you can end your quarantine at that point if you test negative. After your quarantine is over, wear a mask around others for another 5 days. Did people who need to quarantine do something wrong? Dr. Chang: People who are quarantining are actually doing the RiGht thing to protect others from potential infection. the pandemic impacts everyone in different ways, and people who need to quarantine should not feel guilty or stressed. they are following health guidance. Finishing any required quarantine is simply the responsible thing to do to help our families and community by preventing the spread of COViD-19. if anyone you know needs help to cope with the stress associated with COViD19, the State of California offers resources for emotional support and well-being. One of my employees was identified as a close contact to a positive person. What can I do? Dr. Chang: the good news is that if your employee is vaccinated and boosted or recently vaccinated, they can skip quarantine as long as they remain asymptomatic. this is just another benefit of getting vaccinated and boosted when you are eligible. if they are not yet vaccinated, they should follow the rules for quarantine listed above. What is the best way to help stop the spread of COVID-19 and to avoid serious illness? Dr. Chang: All Californians, regardless of vaccination status, should follow the 5 key safety basics to protect ourselves and each other: • Get vaccinated and boosted as soon as eligible. Go to Myturn. ca.gov to check schedule your appointment today. individuals 12+ who received the Pfizer vaccine and individuals 18+ who received the Moderna vaccine are eligible for a booster five months after their initial full series was completed. Johnson & Johnson vaccine recipients are encouraged to get boosted two months after their first vaccination. • Wear a mask to help protect yourself and others. Along with
Dr. Kimberly Chang
vaccination, it is one of our strongest tools to stop the spread and protect others from severe illness. An N95, KN95 or KF94 mask provides the highest level of protection from COViD-19, a surgical mask provides good protection, and a cloth mask should be worn with a surgical mask on top. • Stay home if you are sick and get tested if you have COViD-19 symptoms. • Wash your hands frequently with soap and warm water for at least 20 seconds. • Watch your distance in crowds, especially around our youngest children who are not yet vaccinated, those at risk and those unable to get the vaccine. Californians can go to www.COViD19.ca.gov for more information on COViD19 and the latest public health guidelines. For more about COViD-19, including guidance on masking and testing, visit covid19.ca.gov. to schedule an appointment for a vaccination or a booster, visit Myturn.ca.gov, or call 1-833422-4255. Support is available in 200+ languages. *** Kimberly S.G. Chang, MD, MPH, is a Family Physician at Asian Health Services (AHS) in Oakland, California. In 2015, Dr. Chang completed the Commonwealth Fund Minority Health Policy Fellowship at Harvard, examining the role of federally qualified health centers in addressing human trafficking. Previously, Dr. Chang was the inaugural Clinic Director at AHS’ Frank Kiang Medical Center and provided care for many commercially sexually exploited children. She was elected as the Vice Speaker of the House on the Executive Board of Directors for the National Association of Community Health Centers in 2018 and appointed to the American Public Health Association Committee on Women’s Rights.
4 January 26-28, 2022 • SoCal ASIAN JOURNAL
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SoCal ASIAN JOURNAL • JANUARy 26-28, 2022 5
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Dateline PhiliPPines
Comelec printing of ballots for May polls hits snag Pacquiao ready for presidential debates by WilliaM
depasupil ManilaTimes.net
THE Commission on Elections (Comelec) is ready to stop the ongoing printing of ballots for the coming polls if the Supreme Court would order it following the non-inclusion of at least three candidates who were declared as nuisance but were able to secure a temporary restraining order (TRO) from the high court. “If there’s a ruling from [the Supreme Court], of course. The Comelec stands ready to abide by a lawful ruling of the SC,” said Comelec spokesman James Jimenez on Tuesday in a virtual press briefing, after he acknowledged that there were three candidates for senators who did not make it on the official ballot face released by the Commission. Jimenez said that the TROs were issued at a time when the Comelec had finished serializing the ballots or placing the serial numbers on the ballots, which prompted the Commission to proceed with the printing of ballots.
“By that time the ballot [serialization] has already been completed. We’re ready to go so we started printing because by the time the rule came out, we had already prepared the ballot and couldn’t do anything but print the ballot,” he added. Jimenez said that the aggrieved candidates may file a petition before the Supreme Court against the Comelec even as he stressed that the non-inclusion of said candidates in the ballot face was not a defiance of the TRO. “The Supreme Court did not tell us not to print. I don’t think it’s defiance. Comelec, being aware of its timeline and limitations, decided to go with the printing,” Jimenez said. “I don’t know what to say except that we are following a process laid out long before it happened and ultimately look at what’s necessary for the elections. There are remedies available; I encourage them to avail,” he added. The three candidates who were able to secure TROs
against the Comelec were vice presidential candidate Wilson Amad, Senate hopeful Norman Marquez and party-list organization Juan-Pinagkaisang Ordinaryong Mamamayan Para Yumabong (Juan Pinoy). The Comelec released on Tuesday the official ballot face which contains the names of the candidates vying for president, vice president, senator and party-list group. It contained 10 presidential and nine vice-presidential candidates, 64 Senate hopefuls and 178 party-list groups. The Comelec needed to print a total of 67,442,714 ballots by April 21. Director Helen Aguila Flores, vice chairman of the Comelec printing committee, explained that they have three working printing machines and one reserve for contingencies. Flores said that the scheduled printing of ballots includes a two-week buffer for any fortuitous events. “In our updated timeline, we u PAGE 7
Billionaire Manny Villar to become next...
PAGE 1
last January 6 and provisional authority to use digital TV frequencies in Metro Manila and Mega Manila on Channel 16. This effectively gives the Villar group control over the frequencies, a scarce public asset, while blocking future attempts by ABS-CBN to regain use of the spectrum. It was unclear how the NTC vetted Advanced Media’s capacity to run a TV network. Before awarding the frequencies, it also did not hold the traditional public selection process or “beauty contest”. The last time radio frequencies were awarded was during the rigorous 2018 bidding for the third telco license—which was bagged by Dito Telecommunity, a venture between Duterte campaign donor and business tycoon Dennis A. Uy and China Telecom. The documents also showed Malacañang’s support for the move. The NTC said the 18-month provisional authority to Advanced
Media was reviewed by the Department of Justice and Office of the Executive Secretary, which issued a “no objection” on the assignment of the vacated and available frequencies last December 29. Advanced Media will broadcast the Channel 2 frequency from the Villar Group’s Starmall shopping center along EDSA in Mandaluyong City, Metro Manila, the documents showed. Moreover, the NTC said the test broadcast permit will be effective until the final shut off of analog TV, which was earlier set in 2023. Industry player Felipe Gozon, GMA Network Inc. chair and CEO, previously shared his views that the deadline would be extended anew due to the Philippines’ low adoption of digital TV. This would also extend Advance Media’s hold over the Channel 2 frequencies. Democracy.Net.Ph co-founder Pierre Galla said the issuance of a temporary permit can be subject to “misuse.”
“One method of misuse is if a permit is granted whose nature is indefinite and not short in duration,” he said. It is an anti-competitive behavior designed “to prevent any other entity [from using] the frequencies covered by the permit,” Galla told the Inquirer. According to Forbes Magazine, Villar is the county’s richest individual with a fortune worth $7.2 billion. He owns property giant Vista Land & Lifescapes Inc., broadband company Streamtech apart from water and infrastructure assets. In September last year, the House of Representatives approved the sale and transfer of control of Advanced Media to Villar-owned Planet Cable Inc. In latest financial statement to the Securities and Exchange Commission, Advanced Media reported an 80 percent decline in 2020 revenues to P3.1 million while losses widened to P3.1 million from P1.82 million in 2019. It had total assets of P35.7 million. n
by Bernadette
taMayo ManilaTimes.net
SEN. Emmanuel “Manny” Pacquiao said he is ready to attend all presidential debates and media forums provided that these are mainstream and are proven to be nonpartisan. “I am ready to face any debates or forums,” Pacquiao said on Monday, January 24, in Filipino and English. The Promdi standard-bearer noted that there were also some fly-by-night entities and known “political mercenaries” posing as media practitioners who wanted to put him in the “hot seat.” “Kailangan may (We must also have) standards din naman tayo. It is just a waste of time,” Pacquiao said in a statement. Attending public debates and
Sen. Emmanuel “Manny” Pacquiao
public forums is both an obligation of candidates to the people, the senator said. Pacquiao said these forums allow candidates “to amplify
Makati court sets preliminary hearing for ‘Poblacion Girl’ by Maila
ager Inquirer.net
MANILA — The Makati City prosecutor’s office has set next month the preliminary investigation of the charges filed against Gwyneth Ann Chua, infamously known as “Poblacion Girl,” for the breach of quarantine protocols at the Berjaya Makati hotel last month. Col. Randy Glenn Silvio, who heads the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group National Capital Region field office, said the prosecutor handling the case has scheduled the preliminary investigation on Feb. 7 and Feb. 14 at around 9 a.m. Chua and eight others were charged for violating Republic Act 11332 or the Mandatory Reporting of Notifiable Diseases and Health Events of Public Health Concern Act. The other respondents are Chua’s parents, Allan Chua and Gemma Leonardo-Chua; her boyfriend Rico Atienza and five employees of Berjaya Hotel. Chua has kept quiet about the incident wherein she left the hotel even if she was supposed to be on quarantine. She had dinner and attended a party in a restaurant and restobar
in Barangay Poblacion. She later tested positive for COVID-19. n
LOS ANGELES COUNTY METROPOLITAN TRANSPORTATION AUTHORITY (LACMTA) REQUEST FOR PROPOSALRETRACTION. Metro has issued a Retraction for the published-Request for Proposals (RFP) No. AE83177E0130 Construction Management Support Services (CMSS) for Link Union Station (Link US) Project. on January 21 & 22, 2022. Published with same title in this publication on said date of (1-21 & 22-2022). For further information, please email, Diana Sogomonyan, Principal Contract Administrator, at sogomonyand@metro. net. 1/26/22 CNS-3549095# ASIAN JOURNAL (L.A.)
their visions and their platforms of government.” He said this is also a venue for candidates to show to the people what they have done for the country. n
LOS ANGELES COUNTY METROPOLITAN TRANSPORTATION AUTHORITY (LACMTA) REQUEST FOR PROPOSAL LACMTA will receive Proposals for AE83974 - I-105 Express Lanes Program & Construction Management Support Services at bids@metro.net. All Proposals must be electronically (via email) submitted to LACMTA at bids@metro. net, on or before 2:00 p.m. Pacific Time on Thursday, February 3, 2022. Proposals received after the above date and time may be rejected and returned unopened. Each proposal electronic submittal must be marked Proposal No. AE83974. For a copy of the Proposal/ Bid specification visit our Solicitation Page on our Vendor Portal at https://business. metro.net or for further information email Victor Zepeda at zepedav@metro.net. 1/26, 2/2/22 CNS-3548343# ASIAN JOURNAL (L.A.)
6 JANUARY 26-28, 2022 • SoCal ASIAN JOURNAL
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FeatURes
HOURS after saying he would not make public his Statement of Assets, Liabilities and Net Worth if it will be used by his political opponents, presidential aspirant Ferdinand Marcos Jr. shifted gears last Monday, January 24 and said he would be “perfectly willing” to release his SALN if he wins. Unresolved questions about his family’s enormous wealth continue to hound Marcos, so it was unsurprising that the SALN controversy has been revived in the course of his campaign for the nation’s highest office. He initially cited the ouster of Renato Corona as chief justice as an example of the use of the SALN issue for political purposes. Corona, however, was found guilty of lying in his SALN based on his own admission about his undeclared dollar accounts, before an impeachment court presided over by the Senate president at the time, Juan Ponce Enrile, who is a Marcos ally and opponent of then president Noynoy Aquino. Republic Act 6713, the Code of Conduct and Ethical Standards for Public Officials and Employees, requires the filing of the SALN within 30 days upon assumption of office, and every year thereafter. The law, which stresses that public office is
a public trust, states that “the public has the right to know” the “assets, liabilities, net worth and financial and business interests” of government officials and employees “including those of their spouses and of unmarried children under 18 years of age living in their households.” The public disclosure can sometimes be a farce, with the help of topnotch accountants. In previous Congresses, Marcos’ mother Imelda had emerged as the poorest member of the House of Representatives, based on her SALN. Still, in the interest of public accountability, transparency and good governance, the nation’s highest officials should release their SALNs to the public, even without mass media invoking freedom of information and seeking the public disclosure. It’s called leadership by example, and the public should remember the persons showing this quality as they apply for high office. (Philstar.com)
Editorial
The Fil-Am Perspective GEL SANTOS-RELOS TO hold public office is one of the most sacred privileges a citizen can ever have because along with it comes the opportunity to affect change for the greater good. This is especially true for those running or are appointed for local or national posts because such positions of power, especially that of the Office of the President, are accorded and entrusted with public trust. After all, citizens pay taxes to fund the government and its operations, programs and services in faith and in trust that our public servants are working for our interest. We, the People, are their “boss.” These public officials work for us, and not the other way around. Working for the government does not give an employee a hefty salary so it is not the job one would want if he/she aspires to be rich. However, we have heard how some people had been willing to kill other people just to hold a position in government — from the top post to the “baranggay tanod.” We also wonder how with a meager salary, some government officials and employees have been able to acquire wealth and live extravagant lifestyles. We have seen families holding public
Philstar.com photo
Election red flag: Resistance to transparency, accountability of candidates seeking public office office together in the legislative and executive branches of government in both local and national offices, clinging to these positions in a merry-goround dance, generations after generations. “Corruption is a cancer within the body of societies—a disease that eats at public trust and the ability of governments to deliver for their citizens. The deleterious effects of corruption impact nearly all aspects of society. It exacerbates social, political, and economic inequality and polarization; impedes the ability of states to respond to public health crises or to deliver quality education; degrades the business environment and economic opportunity; drives conflict; and undermines faith in government. Those that abuse positions of power for private gain steal not just material wealth, but human dignity and welfare,” the White House official page states. This truth is very palpable in the Philippines. Elections after elections we hear campaign promises about fighting against and abolishing corruption, but the promises remain to be empty rhetoric of many sweettalking scheming politicians who fear and therefore tactically workaround and game the system to avoid two important requirements of these sacred
positions of public trust in government: transparency and accountability. Transparency means to be open and proactive in disclosing everything that is material and important to how the public official will conduct himself and make decisions while in office, and this starts the moment he/ she has signified and formalized intent to run for office or accept an appointment to serve in government. This is the sacred resume a candidate presents to the people on his qualifications and personal information why we, the people, should entrust with him the position of power to work for our greater good. The public official is expected to be proactive in his/her disclosure about his personal, social, economic ties; his/her assets, liabilities and net worth; about his/her clean record involving crimes and moral and ethical turpitude; about principles, visions, and platform to make our lives better, and our democracy stronger. Campaigns are free to present their candidates in the best possible light to convince the electorate they are best suited for the position. That is their public relations function. But all these this need to be checked, examined, questioned, and
explained as required by the principle of transparency. Political appointees are vetted, their past dug up, and they are subject to hearings which are like “cross examinations” about their fitness to be in office before they are confirmed pursuant to the rule of law. For elected officials, part of the process by which the citizenry can make a more informed decision in hiring or rejecting a candidate for office is by thorough research, investigation and the job interview, which take the form of debates, interviews, panel discussions, town hall meetings, etc., done by the fourth estate — the free, independent press in a democracy. A candidate applying for the job, therefore, should be ready, willing and able to go through this rigorous process of job application because no one is entitled to the job. He/she could not cherry-pick who should conduct the interview and face only those who accept his claims as gospel truth. That would be PR. A true, honest, trustworthy candidate should be ready, willing and able to face the press who are like hungry hyenas ready to devour him/her until all his skeletons are revealed with hard, mean, incisive questions. That is the role of the press in
a democracy because this will serve the public better in their sacred decision-making process of choosing the right and deserving public servant. This is also a pre-cursor to how a candidate, when elected in office, will be transparent in his/her actions as an elected public servant. Government information, government records, transactions, dealings should be made available to the public, whether proactively and/ or when asked. Former President Barack Obama wrote a Memorandum for the Heads of Executive Departments and their Agencies” and part of it read: “We will work together to ensure the public trust and establish a system of transparency, public participation, and collaboration. Openness will strengthen our democracy and promote efficiency and effectiveness in Government. Government should be transparent. Transparency promotes accountability and provides information for citizens about what their Government is doing. Information maintained by the Federal Government is a national asset.” When do we demand transparency, which promotes accountability from our own public officials in the Philippines? This is not “paninira” or putting
the government down. In fact, it is our sacred obligation to keep our government officials transparent and accountable in all their actions because that will push them to serve us better and strengthen our democracy. Systemic corruption has been perpetuated in government not just by those in power, but by the voters who, knowingly or unknowingly, have been condoning, approving, and even nurturing this very chronic social ill that has been keeping the Philippines a “third world” country. This coming election, don’t turn a blind eye to the red flags. Demand transparency and accountability from all candidates, especially from those running to be president of the Philippines. *** The opinions, beliefs and viewpoints expressed by the author do not necessarily reflect the opinions, beliefs and viewpoints of the Asian Journal, its management, editorial board and staff.
*** Gel Santos Relos has been in news, talk, public service and educational broadcasting since 1989 with ABS-CBN and is now serving the Filipino audience using different platforms, including digital broadcasting, and print, and is working on a new public service program for the community. You may contact her through email at gelrelos@icloud.com, or send her a message via Facebook at Facebook.com/Gel. Santos.Relos.
Major global challenges ahead
Babe’s Eye View BABE ROMUALDEZ WHILE people are seeing a spark of hope that the COVID-19 situation will eventually transition from pandemic to endemic, what is really worrisome now, especially for the U.S. and its friends and allies, is the escalating tension in Ukraine, with the buildup of Russian troops over the border now estimated at 100,000. The encouraging news is the decline in the number of Omicron infections worldwide. In the United States, cases are also going down in places such as New York, California, Colorado, Florida, Pennsylvania and several other states, indicative that the surge is peaking, according to experts. But while the situation is becoming less grim, people should not be complacent and should maintain masking and health protocols. In the Philippines, the number of cases is decreasing particularly in Metro Manila, with the one-week growth rate falling to -20 percent, according to OCTA Research, noting that the downward trend
is similar to the pattern seen in South Africa where a rapid surge was followed by a “dramatic decrease in infections.” Daily cases in the National Capital Region could go down to 1,000 in mid-February, and possibly less than 500 daily infections by the end of February, OCTA also said. But the world will be coming out of this pandemic with new challenges not only economically but politically as well. U.S. intelligence sources are convinced Russian president Vladimir Putin will use the troops to move in to Ukraine, a strategically important nation for NATO and the United States. State Secretary Antony Blinken has decried the Russian troop buildup, saying there was “no provocation, no reason” for such action and raised the possibility that Russia could attack Ukraine “on very short notice,” warning of tough sanctions if that happens. “We know that there are plans in place to increase that force even more on very short notice,” Secretary Blinken said in a press conference. Reports that Russia is also moving troops and military
hardware to Belarus – with plans to conduct military drills in February dubbed as “Allied Resolve” – has fueled the tension even further. Lithuania, which shares a border with Belarus, has expressed concern about the presence of Russian troops. “In the current situation, we consider the entry of Russian military forces into Belarus not only as a destabilizing factor of the security situation, but also as an even greater threat to Lithuania,” Lithuanian Defense Minister Arvydas Anusauskas said. Both the UK and Canada are also showing support for Ukraine. The UK has sent antitank weapons and British personnel to provide training, while Canada has warned about severe sanctions and also deployed special forces. Russia has denied allegations that it is looking for an excuse to invade Ukraine. Security experts believe that such course of action would be costly – economically and otherwise – for Russia, and would be damaging to the political standing of Vladimir Putin. However, they also acknowledge the risk of war if talks between the U.S. and Russia will fail to ease
tensions. Ukrainians meanwhile have expressed their readiness to defend their nation from any attempt at invasion, saying they will fight to the end. North Korea’s recent firing of suspected ballistic missiles is also another cause of tension, aggravated by a statement from North Korean state media KCNA that the “hostile policy and military threat by the U.S. have reached a danger line that cannot be overlooked anymore,” thus the need to prepare for “a longterm confrontation.” Japan has issued a condemnation, with Japanese Defense Minister Nobuo Kishi saying that the “repeated launching of North Korea’s ballistic missiles is a grave problem for the international community, including Japan.” And while the missile launches did not pose an immediate threat to the U.S. and its allies, these highlight the destabilizing impact of North Korea’s illicit weapons program, said the U.S. Indo-Pacific Command. Aside from North Korea and Ukraine, the virtual meeting between President Biden and Japanese Prime Minister
Fumio Kishida on Friday also tackled China’s increasing aggressiveness and how they can work together to preserve stability in the Indo-Pacific region. Last Wednesday, January 19 Chinese military fighter jets entered Taiwan’s Air Defense Identification Zone in yet another act of intrusion. In his congressional testimony last year, then-Indo-Pacific Commander Admiral Philip Davidson said China could attempt to take control over Taiwan within six years, observing that China’s military capability has evolved throughout the 21st century. Malaysia’s Foreign Minister Saifuddin Abdullah also warned about China’s new strategy in advancing its territorial claims. Instead of the nine-dash-line – which was rejected by the Permanent Court of Arbitration as having no legal basis – China is now using the “four sha” (four sands archipelagos, referring to disputed island groups which China has named as Dongsha, Xisha, Zhongsha and Nansha) to justify its claims of sovereignty over the South China Sea. A 47-page report released
by the U.S. State Department outlines the “unlawful” maritime claims of China which “gravely undermine the rule of law in the oceans and numerous universally recognized provisions of international law reflected in the Convention,” the report said. Countries in the Asia Pacific, especially ASEAN membernations, will need to be unified in their stand because clearly, any escalation will only make it difficult for nations to recover from the devastating impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the global economy. President Biden has already sent out formal letter invitations to all the ASEAN leaders for a faceto-face summit in Washington within the next couple of months. The summit is expected to cover a wide range of issues about post-pandemic economic cooperation and security in the region. (Philstar.com) *** The opinions, beliefs and viewpoints expressed by the author do not necessarily reflect the opinions, beliefs and viewpoints of the Asian Journal, its management, editorial board and staff.
*** Email: babeseyeview@gmail.com
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Election fact-checking initiative launched Palace: ‘War on drugs’ not wasted opportunity by Janvic
Mateo Philstar.com
MANILA — Twenty-two media organizations, academic institutions and civil society groups have re-launched an expanded fact-checking coalition to combat disinformation in the 2022 elections. First launched in 2019, Tsek.ph is a pioneering collaborative factchecking coalition that brought together the academe, media and civil society to address the spread of election-related disinformation. Fact-checks cover claims on platforms and campaign promises of candidates; election-related statements and remarks made by candidates, personalities, government agencies and other entities; and election-related posts on social media, blogs and other platforms. “Initiatives like Tsek.ph are vital and necessary,” said University of the Philippines (UP) vice president for public affairs Elena Pernia. “Especially now, when an enlightened Filipino citizenry is key to our elections so that we are correctly informed about who and what the candidates running for national and local positions stand for,” she said. Baybars Orsek, director of the International Fact-Checking Network at Poynter, lauded the revival of Tsek.ph in his keynote speech during the launch on Monday. “Tsek.ph is one of the most significant efforts in the world that has been carrying out these activities in such a collaborative way and it has inspired so many collaborative initiatives among other fact checkers,” he said. The revitalized alliance includes media organizations ABSCBN, Baguio Chronicle, dzUP, FYT, Interaksyon, MindaNews, PhilStar Global, Philippine Press Institute (PPI), Press One, Probe and VERA Files, as well as civil society groups Akademiya at Bayan Kontra Disimpormasyon at Dayaan (ABKD), BarangayHub, Fact Check Philippines and the
by alexis
RoMeRo Philstar.com
First launched in 2019, Tsek.ph is a pioneering collaborative fact-checking coalition that brought together the academe, media and civil society to address the spread of electionrelated disinformation. Philstar.com photo
Philippine Association for Media and Information Literacy. Its academic partners are the Asian Center for Journalism at the Ateneo de Manila University, Colegio de San Juan de Letran, Trinity University of Asia Communication Department, UP Los Baños, UP Department of Journalism’s Fact-Check Patrol and FactRakers and the University of Santo Tomas (UST) Journalism Program. “We at the Philippine Press Institute, also known as the national association of newspapers, support a stronger Tsek.ph. Just as we commit to our own mandate as an organization, we bind ourselves to the noble and ennobling intentions and ideals of fact-checking,” said PPI executive director Ariel Sebellino. “Today more than ever, we should all unite to free ourselves from the bondage of infodemic. One big check for Tsek.ph,” he added in English and Filipino. Ging Reyes, head of ABS-CBN’s Integrated News and Current Affairs division, commended the group’s efforts in uniting factchecking partners, acknowledging the crucial role that journalism plays in society. “This is an inherent part of our responsibility as journalists: to hold those in power accountable, and to protect a vibrant democracy where people can make decisions freely based on correct information,” she said. Camille Diola, editor of digital news outlets Philstar.com and Interaksyon, underscored how despite perceived competition
among them, all partners are united by the mission of the coalition. “So it is only right, and it is a necessity, that we set our differences aside and work in concert through Tsek.ph,” she said. Meanwhile, Carol Arguillas, editor of MindaNews – a Mindanao-based online newspaper and Tsek.ph media partner since 2019 – shared the organization’s commitment to “this collective endeavor and collective commitment to provide the public with accurate information.” Felipe Salvosa II, program coordinator of the UST Journalism Program, also highlighted the role of academic institutions in addressing disinformation. “As journalists and journalism educators, our first obligation is to the truth. And this aligns with our official university motto: veritas in caritate – truth in charity. Truth, addressing the problem of disinformation, fighting fake news, is our obligation to one another,” he said. Also joining the launch was ABKD convenor Francisco Guiang, who expressed the group’s commitment to the network’s mandate to “conduct fact checking, hold webinars about disinformation and fake news, conduct education seminars and join the kontra-daya efforts in the upcoming elections.” Tsek.ph is supported by the UP System, Google News Initiative, UP Journalism Department and the UP College of Mass Communication Foundation.n
Comelec printing of ballots for May polls... PAGE 5 will print the last set April 12 [to April 21] for the NCR (National Capital Region). This is a very modest timeline already that includes a buffer for contingency [that the Covid pandemic may bring],” she added.
“We are foreseeing that there is a contingency plan to come up with a reserved pool of workers [who will take over] if people get infected,” she further said. At stake in the next year’s polls are 18,100 positions — one each for president and vice
president; senators, 12; partylist groups, 63; members of the House of Representatives, 253; governor, 81,; vice-governor, 81; Sangguniang Panlalawigan, 782; mayor, 1,634; vice mayor, 1,634; and Sangguniang Panlungsod/Bayan, 13,558. n
MANILA — There were no missed opportunities in President Rodrigo Duterte’s “drug war”, Malacañang said on Tuesday, January 25, after presidential aspirant Sen. Panfilo Lacson remarked that the campaign would have succeeded it if was properly implemented. Lacson, a former police chief, recently described as “sayang” or wasted Duterte’s controversial crackdown on narcotics, saying the campaign had focused on enforcement but not on prevention and rehabilitation. He said he believes that Duterte had noble intentions in pursuing the “drug war” but maintained that the program would have succeeded without the police “having to resort to extrajudicial means.” “President Duterte did not waste anything in the fight against illegal drugs and the facts will
speak for themselves,” Cabinet Secretary Karlo Nograles, acting presidential spokesman, said at a press briefing. Nograles said the government has seized and destroyed more than P74 billion worth of illegal drugs and laboratory equipment from July 2016 to November of last year. He added that 23,686 barangays all over the country have been cleared of illegal drugs. “The opportunity was not wasted and we continue our extensive campaign against illegal drugs here in the country,” Nograles said. Palace: We prohibit EJKs The Palace spokesman reiterated that the government does not condone extrajudicial killings (EJK). “We prohibit EJK. Any extrajudicial means is not allowed. We will prosecute those who should be punished, those who should be charged and even in the Department of Justice and the NBI
(National Bureau of Investigation), the wheels of justice are in motion against anybody accused of any EJK,” Nograles added. More than 6,000 persons have been killed since Duterte waged a brutal campaign against illegal drugs, a policy that some sectors claimed violates human rights. A pre-trial chamber of the International Criminal Court (ICC) has allowed a probe into the killings tied to the anti-drug campaign but Malacañang insists that the tribunal has no jurisdiction over the matter. Officials insist that the Rome Statute, which created the ICC, did not meet publication requirements and therefore, did not take effect in the Philippines. The Philippine government recently asked the ICC to suspend the investigation, saying it is acting on the deaths associated with anti-drug operations. The ICC has agreed but has vowed to continue analyzing information related to the campaign. n
Int’l watchdog calls on Senate to pass Human Rights Defenders Act by GabRiel
Pabico Inquirer.net
lalu
MANILA — An international watchdog has urged the Senate of the Philippines to pass the Human Rights Defenders Act, which is seen to protect rights workers from harassment and extrajudicial killings (EJKs). According to the Observatory for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders, the House of Representatives’ decision to pass the bill is a welcome move for rights workers, as many have complained of being harassed or even attacked due to their line of work. The Observatory, a joint project of the World Organisation Against Torture (OMCT) and the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH) hopes that the Senate, the other chamber of Congress, would adopt the measure. “The Observatory for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders (OMCT-FIDH) welcomes the adoption of the Human Rights Defenders Act by the Philippine House of Representatives, and calls on the Senate to pass a similar bill, in order to promulgate
and implement a national protection law for human rights defenders in the Philippines,” the Observatory said. “The act proposes, among others, the recognition of human rights defenders, organisations, and their work, obligations of state actors towards them, and the creation of a Human Rights Defenders Protection Committee, in line with the provisions included in the United Nations (UN) Declaration on the Rights of Human Rights Defenders, adopted in 1998,” it added. The group was referring to the House Bill No. 10576 or the Human Rights Defenders Protection Act which was authored by Albay 1st District Rep. Edcel Lagman. However, they noted that the House had already passed another bill in 2019 — the House Bill No. 9199 or the Human Rights Defenders (HRD) Protection Bill — which was not adopted by the Senate, resulting in the bill failing to progress into law. “The Observatory welcomes the passing of House Bill No. 10576 but recalls that in 2019, the House of Representatives had already adopted a Human
Rights Defenders Bill under House Bill No. 9199,” the Observatory said. “Yet, the Senate failed to adopt its corresponding bill and hence it was never enacted into a law, despite reiterated calls by international civil society and the UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of Human Rights Defenders to prioritise the passage of legislation for the protection of human rights defenders,” it stressed. The passage and enactment of such a law, the Observatory believes, would prevent more attacks on human rights defenders — from arbitrary arrests, harassment, and even killings, which they said have been the prevailing climate since President Rodrigo Duterte took office in 2016. “In the Philippines, human rights defenders face attacks, killings, judicial harassment, arbitrary detention and stigmatization campaigns led by both state and non-state actors. Since President Duterte took power in June 2016, a climate in which attacks against human rights defenders are acceptable and legitimized has prevailed,” u PAGE 8
8 January 26-28, 2022 • SoCal ASIAN JOURNAL
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House OKs stronger bill vs trafficking; ‘SAF 44’ remembered after 7 years more online offenses now included by Al JAcinto ManilaTimes.net
by neil
Arwin MercAdo Inquirer.net
MANILA — The House of Representatives approved on second reading the bill strengthening policies on anti-trafficking in persons by including online abuses, such as pornography, as offenses. Via voice voting, the lower chamber approved during Tuesday’s session House Bill No. 10658 which amends Republic Act No. 928 or the Anti-Trafficking in Persons Act of 2003. The measure seeks to modernize current laws by addressing trafficking activities committed in the advent of new technologies.
Under the measure, trafficking in persons is redefined to include online offenses; engagement in pornography, child sexual abuse and exploitation materials; and online sexual abuse. The measure likewise seeks to enhance the ability of law enforcement agencies to be at par with the advancement of technology and allow them to utilize court-authorized wiretaps in investigating child trafficking and online sexual exploitation. Moreover, the bill seeks the assistance of the private sector, which by the nature of their business activities, may come into contact with suspected trafficking situations.
The measure also includes additional provisions for qualified trafficking when the persons trafficked are persons with disabilities, belongs to an indigenous community, when the crime is committed in times of crisis or emergency when the crime has resulted in pregnancy, or through the use of information and communications technology or using any computer system. “Something has to be done to prevent exploitation of people for labor and sexual purposes,” Tingog Party-list Rep. Yedda Marie K. Romualdez, who chairs the House committee on the welfare of children, earlier said. n
Int’l watchdog calls on Senate to pass...
PAGE 7 the Observatory said. “The killings of defenders are rarely investigated, which increases the vulnerability of those who remain active, while undermining the human rights community’s confidence in the justice system. In addition, the Anti-Terrorism Act, which was passed in July 2020, further compounded the precarious situation for human rights
defenders by legally formalizing the practice of ‘red-tagging’ defenders with overly broad and vague definitions of terrorism,” it added. In 2016, Duterte was elected into office through a promise of ridding streets of drugs. Later on, Duterte — a known ally of the left — waged a campaign against communism in the countryside. However, many human
rights groups and advocates have claimed that these two campaigns are being used to attack government critics and rights workers who have denounced the Duterte administration’s policies. But the government insists that President Duterte’s administration actually fulfilled its promise to pursue social justice and human rights in the Philippines. n
FITNESS FIRST. A group of women dances their way to good health at the Don Alejandro Roces Sr. monument and park at the intersection of Don A. Roces and Mother Ignacia Avenues in Quezon City on Tuesday, January 25. Health authorities recommend daily exercise at least 30 minutes a day to increase the body’s resistance against illnesses. PNA photo by Joey O. Razon
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ZAMBOANGA CITY - Police on Tuesday, January 25 commemorated the seventh anniversary of the Mamasapano massacre where 44 members of the elite Special Action Force (SAF) were brutally killed by Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) rebels in Maguindanao province. Various police headquarters in Mindanao called it a National Day of Remembrance in honor of the heroism and sacrifices of the slain commandos. “The officers and men of Police Regional Office Region 11 (PRO-11) commemorates the National Day of Remembrance for the heroism and patriotism of the 44 Philippine National Police PNP Special Action Force troopers, who died in the anti-terror operation in Mamasapano, Maguindanao seven years ago. “The PRO-11 will continuously honor the departed SAF troopers. We will always remember their heroism as they sacrificed their lives in Mamasapano. We pray that ultimate justice be served to the families of our late heroes who paid the ultimate price in defending our country against terrorists,” the PRO-11 (Davao) wrote on its Facebook page. The PRO-12 (Soccsksargen) also posted a tribute on its social media page and reminded the public not to forget the heroism of those who perished in the dangerous mission. “REMEMBERING THE #FALLEN44: Let us not forget the heroism, the courage, the sacrifice, the nationalism, the love of country, and people, that they demonstrate every day that they perform their duties, that they provide honor and bring glory to our country,” it said. “#SAF44: FALLEN BUT NOT FORGOTTEN. On this day, we remember the SAF 44 who died a meaningful death on the side of justice and righteousness. The gallantry of the ‘SAF 44’ is an inspiration to the PRO-12 personnel as they continue to fulfill their mandate to serve the country and defend the Constitution. Let us remain steadfast in fighting the injustices perpetrated by terrorists and lawless groups in the Soccsksargen region.” The PRO-3 (Central Luzon) also commemorated the heroism
of the SAF 44. On Tuesday morning, a wreath-laying ceremony was held at the PRO-3 Heroes’ Monument in Camp Olivas, City of San Fernando, Pampanga. “Their heroism will continue to serve as the beacon of light for all of us, and a guiding instrument of achieving lasting peace and order in our country,” PRO-3 Regional Director BGen. Mathew Baccay said during the program. In Bulacan, Col. Rommel Ochave, Bulacan police acting provincial director, led the same commemoration for the Bulacan Police Provincial Office. A mass officiated by Rev. Fr. LtCol. Heintje Canete was also held in honor of the fallen heroes. The police commandos were on a clandestine mission deep inside the MILF territory to arrest Malaysian bomber Zulkifli Abdhir, who was eventually killed in the operation in Tukanalipao village on Jan. 25, 2015. The commandos were on their way to rejoin the more than 300 SAF members waiting on the highway when MILF forces, aided by the Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters (BIFF), attacked the commandos. Abdhir, alias Marwan, was also wanted by the United States which offered a $5 million bounty for his capture dead or alive. He was suspected of leading the Kumpulan Mujahidin Malaysia and being part of the central command
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of the Jemaah Islamiyah. He was also implicated in the 2002 bombings in Bali, Indonesia. At least 18 MILF and five BIFF were killed in the fierce fighting that the Aquino government later claimed as a misencounter so as not endanger the peace accord it signed with the rebel group on March 28, 2014. Barely a month later after the killings, the MILF which signed an interim peace deal with Manila, surrendered at least 16 specialized automatic rifles it took from the slain commandos. The weapons were handed over to the police, but SAF sources claimed the rifles had been tampered and that many of its parts were either taken out or replaced with defective mechanisms. Kin of police commandos previously demanded that MILF leader Murad Ebrahim, now Chief Minister of the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, to surrender those behind the gruesome murders but he strongly refused. Because of the killings, lawmakers shelved the Bangasamoro Basic Law (BBL) until investigations into the deadly clashes between the SAF and MILF were completed. The BBL was eventually passed in the current administration of President Rodrigo Duterte, who even provided MILF members with over P1 billion in financial aid for their livelihood skills training to help them integrate into mainstream society. n
The Asian Journal
mdwk
Wednesday january 26, 2022
mAGAZINE
Ylona Garcia moves to US for music career By
NAthAlie tomAdA Philstar.com
AFTER five years, Ylona Garcia left the country in 2020 to return to her hometown in Australia. The move back home might have led some fans to think the 19-year-old singer-songwriter was opting out of a career in showbiz. At one point, the former Pinoy Big Brother (PBB) first runner-up went viral over photos of herself taking on a job at a popular fast food chain. But contrary perhaps to the perception of some, she wasn’t leaving the industry behind, let alone quitting on her music goals. In a recent interview with the press, Ylona disclosed she has since relocated to Los Angeles in the US and “I am staying here for good.” She told The STAR: “The reason why I moved to the US is because I want to start my career. Well, it’s always been my goal ever since I was young. Somehow, a part of me knew that I’d always end up here. Only because it was my goal. It’s always been a dream of mine.” Ylona said the decision to base herself in L.A. happened even before she signed up with Paradise Rising — the sister label of the US-headquartered pan-Asian media company 88rising — which is dedicated to establishing and promoting Filipino artists globally and in partnership with Globe. “I went to Los Angeles quite a few times and started creating songs, then started meeting a lot of cool people. And then, I ended up signing with 88rising,” shared Ylona who under her new label was able to drop two singles last year — All That and Don’t Go Changing. Before 2021 closed out, she was included in the artist lineup at 88rising’s annual Asian music music festival, Head in the Clouds, in California, joining the likes of Fil-Am rap star Saweetie and Korean-American musician Japanese Breakfast. 2022 is off to a good start for the Fil-Aussie artist. When The STAR had the chance to catch up with Ylona, she just released her first single for the new year, Entertain Me, still under Paradise Rising/88rising Music. Produced by DNA and written by Ylona herself together with David Musumeci and Antonio Egizii, Entertain Me is an anthemic synth-pop number about girl power. With a soaring backbeat and a chorus that could send you looking for
2022 is off to a good start for the FilipinoAustralian singer-songwriter. Ylona just released her first single for the new year, Entertain Me, under Paradise Rising/88rising Music. Photo from Instagram/@ylona
a dancefloor, Ylona sings about asserting independence and taking control over her life. Most noteworthy about this single is that its release coincided with the launch of a new playable character in Riot Games’ wildly-popular video game, Valorant. The new character is named Neon, who in teasers has been described as hailing from Manila, speaks Tagalog and is one of the youngest agents “who can outpace the rest of the roster, shocking the competition, and sliding straight into the fight.” Meanwhile, the music video for Entertain Me now has two million views following its YouTube premiere last Jan. 11. Ylona said of the music video and the collab with Valorant: “It was nice to put myself and be like in a sort of character when I performed Entertain Me. When I made that song, I felt really, really cool. And Valorant thought that would be a great match to Neon. So, I felt very, very honored by that. But Neon is very cool. Very opposite to how I feel about myself sometimes, but it’s okay. She’s somebody that I want to be.” Here are more excerpts from the virtual chat with Ylona. On starting a music career in the US: “First of all, starting from scratch feels, at times, difficult, but at the same time, it feels really, really nice. Because this is something that I’ve always wanted ever since I was younger. So I feel very, very happy with where I am now. “I don’t think there was ever a moment where I wanted to stop pursuing music but, you know, I don’t think moving to
any country would ever stop that… During the lockdown, I worked in McDonald’s, that was more of something that I have always wanted to do. And I decided, you know what, let’s do it while I have time, okay, but I never wanted to stop the music.” On the inspiration and message behind entertain me: “So, this song was created during lockdown back in Australia. To be specific, it was created last 2021, Feb. 10 at 7:54 p.m. Basically, I was blessed with a chance to be able to catch up with my childhood friends in Sydney, Australia. And in catching up with them, we were sharing stories. And I found one thing in common about each of the stories, which was basically feeling like you’re not given a chance, you know? I was still 18, and that age — you know, we’re all the same age — it just felt like a time where we were supposed to be an adult, feeling independent, feeling strong, but we didn’t feel like that at all. Which is really, really, really sad. Therefore, I ended up writing the song Entertain Me. It’s about a person who basically plays by their own rules. “My expectations back then when I was making the song was just to create an overall character with the essence of just being absolutely confident, 100 percent, with yourself. I mean like, it’s something that I absolutely aspire to, and I hope that it comforts me, kind of reminds me every day to be vocal about how I feel, to be confident with who I am. I hope that people across the globe will be able to get that message.” On how she got into songwriting: “I think this was during my stay at the PBB house (in 2015). Yeah, because I wrote the song Win The Fight there, one of the first songs that I’ve ever written. And then, I also wrote My Name is Ylona Garcia album (2016). I wrote quite a few songs and it was just, honestly, out of boredom. But it was a lot of fun. So, that’s when I kind of realize that this could actually be a lot of fun, to the point where I can actually pursue this as a career. And it can still be fun.” On what’s next for Ylona: “That is an interesting question. Well, my goals would be to get into acting, so I guess that’s what’s next for Ylona Garcia. Also to put out an album. To also give my family a house. I have promised them one ever since I started my whole career in the Philippines. That was one of my goals.”
Men should be given ‘allowance for mistake,’ Bianca Manalo thinks By
Alex BrosAs Inquirer.net
ACTRESS Bianca Manalo feels that like her Carol Manansala character in “The Broken Marriage Vow,” she would not spill the beans on the extra marital affairs of her friend’s husband, because men should be given “allowance for mistakes.” “Actually, parang si Carol ‘yung alam niya lahat, pero kahit gusto niyang sabihin, ayaw niyang manira ng relasyon, eh. Hindi niya hahayaang makasira ng taong in a relationship,” Manalo said about her character
Bianca Manalo
during the online press conference for the TV series last Jan. 17. (Actually, Carol is the type who knows everything, but even if she wants to say what she knows, she does not want to ruin a relationship. She will not allow herself to ruin someone in a relationship.) Manalo plays friend to Jodi Sta. Maria’s Dr. Jill Ilustre character, who is married to David Ilustre played by Zanjoe Marudo. While she knows about Dr. Jill’s husband’s extra-marital affair, she refuses to tell Dr. Jill about it. “Kung may alam ka, tago
Photo from Instagram/@biancamanalo
mo na lang sa sarili mo. Hindi mo naman ‘yun story to tell, eh. Malay mo, maayos din naman nila, ‘di ba?” she added. (If you know something, just keep it to yourself. That’s not your story to tell. Who knows, they might be able to fix it.) Manalo said that in real life, she would follow her character’s decision not to tell her friend about her husband’s infidelity. “Feeling ko, ako, hindi ko sasabihin. Alam kong babae din ako. Paano kung sa akin gawin ‘yun?” she asked. “Paano kung maayos pala nila, ‘di ba? Tapos nasira mo na,” she explained. (I feel like I won’t tell it. I know that I am also a woman. What if it’s done to me? What if they could have fixed it, but you already ruined it?) Manalo then recalled a dialogue in a movie where it said that men should be given second chances. “Ang mga lalaki, nagkakamali naman ‘yan, eh. Sabi nga doon sa isang pelikula, dapat binibigyan sila ang allowance for mistake kasi may pagsisisi at may reconciliation naman na nangyayari.” (Men do really make mistakes. As it was said in a movie, they should be given allowances for making mistakes, because there’s repentance and reconciliation anyway, eventually.)
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Sharon on what she learned from FPJ and weight loss as a ‘commitment’ By
mAriNel Cruz Inquirer.net
I WANT to be able to play with my future grandkids,” said actress Sharon Cuneta on why she “made a commitment” to lose more weight. “It’s really for my health. Miguel (son) is 12 now. I don’t want to miss out. I had to commit to myself. I remember doing this in January 2016,” she recalled. “When you do it for other people, it’s not going to last. What I do is I talk to myself. I say, ‘Kaya mo ito.’” She further said: “[Six] years, I have been trying to lose weight. What people don’t know is that I’m almost half of my old bodyweight. I’m 8 up here and 12 down here.” Everything in moderation When asked about her regular workout regimen, the Megastar said: “I wish I could say I work out regularly, but I don’t. I really wish a could. I do the treadmill. I’ve recently rediscovered my love for swimming so I’m darker now.” In terms of what she eats, Sharon said, “I didn’t remove carbs. I just lessened it. I got used to it. It’s all about how you train your tummy. What happens is that you keep eating and eating but you feel full really fast. I’m not into sweets, either. Tinantanan ko na ang bread, which is really my weakness, as well as sweet drinks. I eat everything in moderation.” Sharon said she refuses to force herself to start another weight-loss plan. “I’ve done so many diets before. When you stop, you gain more than what you’ve lost, and that’s harder to remove. These days, I just go for more protein and fewer carbs. It also helps that I have a happy disposition.” Having a happy disposition also means she no longer takes her bashers too seriously. “I’ve learned how to best deal with them: Don’t give them power, just block. Part of having a social media account is dealing with them. They have nothing better to do, so don’t take what they say to heart,” she pointed out. “Listen to people
Sharon Cuneta
Photo from Instagram/@reallysharoncuneta
who talk to you face-to-face. Don’t pay attention to those who just want to ruin your day. Why will you let them? “I’m used to them now. Nine years ago, I would still get shocked. These days, not anymore. That is if I get to read their comments at all. I have an account admin. These comments automatically get deleted,” she declared. Busy taping Sharon is busy these days taping for the long-running action-adventure series “FPJ’s Ang Probinsyano,” where she plays the conflicted character Aurora. In an interview, she paid tribute to the late actor Fernando “FPJ” Poe Jr., who first played Continued on Page 10
entertainment Ogie thrives in vlogging
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The Asian Jour nal MDWK MAGAZINE - January 26, 2022
Glester confesses, “Marami ang nagme-message sa akin na hindi raw sila naniniwalang SINCE he got into vlogging, magkapatid kami. Sabi nila, (video blogging), I have come magdyowa daw kami. Pag across at least two special ediganu’n, bina-block ko na lang tions that artist manager Ogie sila!” Diaz has mounted on his You Proof of their brotherly Tube channel. closeness is their openness to Why Ogie, also my kumpeach other. Glester holds the are, has busied himself with key to Japet’s many untold vlogging more than acting on secrets not even their parents TV is because of his explicable are aware of. aversion toward lock-in tapings. Unknown to Glester, Ogie Frankly, the multi-hyphenate and Japet had been exchangrefuses to be away from his ing private messages prior to family. the appointed interview. Their Fortuitously, his new preoc- The comedian busied himself with vlogging agenda was to do a prank on cupation has been paying off so more than acting on TV because of his Glester to determine Japet’s explicable aversion toward lock-in tapings. far, bringing in more financial honesty. Photo from Instagram/@ogie_diaz rewards he can possibly imGlester worked as a seaman agine. The Capuno brothers, who when Japet badly needed Next is Ogie’s feature on are also into vlogging, have money but wouldn’t pester two brothers I stumbled upon caught the attention of the his Kuya. Since their mom was by accident recently. netizens with the way they cash-strapped, Japet had no Ogie had to fly to Cebu to display their brotherly love for recourse but to get the money get Glester and Japet Capuno each other. from a gay acquaintance he had sit and get bombarded with Out of sheer gratitude, met up with at a mall. intriguing questions about their Japet never fails to thanks his Japet ended up at the gay unusual brotherly relationship. Kuya by kissing him on the friend’s condo unit. Born 10 years apart, it was cheek — and don’t look now — All ears, the seemingly Glester among all siblings who in the lips. Isn’t it also downpeeved Glester turned to took care of Japet. Not only did right weird that they would Japet, “Bakit ngayon mo lang Glester help his younger broth- tightly embrace each other like sinabi?” Feeling betrayed, er with his school work, he also a couple? Glester was seen clenching his played father to whom Japet But no, theirs is not an fist, about to deliver a punch. would run for whatever help. incestuous relationship. Ogie was quick to announce it was just a prank, preventing Glester from what he was capable of doing. The feature ended with the Kuya and bunso making a “walang iwanan anumang mangyari” pact. While both will be happy if either eventually gets married, Glester and Japet hope it won’t happen soon. Obviously, it’s not incest but in zest! Anyway, going back to his many features, I have specially fancied two sit-down interviews with his Cebu-based subjects. The first involves a selfless yet bubbly Cebuana music teacher whose vlogs have gone viral, and how? Now making money out of her widely followed vlogs, she serves as an inspiration to other girls her age who have less in life and is surrounded by family members who depend on her. Hers is a story of unflinching hope that there’s a proverbial light at the end of the tunnel. By Ronnie
CaRRasCo ManilaTimes.net
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Nine-hour novena to the Infant Jesus of Prague to be held on January 29 THE annual nine-hour novena to the Infant Jesus of Prague will be held on Saturday, January 29, 2022, at Our Lady of Grace Catholic Church (5011 White Oak Avenue, Encino, CA 91316). This year’s theme is ‘Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the Name of the Father and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. – Matthew 28:19-20. Beginning at 6:45 a.m., every hour after the novena prayer, different subtopics are presented by invited dynamic and inspirational speakers. This year’s speakers are Reverend Marinello Saguin, Pastor of Our Lady of Grace Church, Encino, Reverend Joy Lawrence Santos, Pastor of Saint Genevieve Church, Panorama City, Reverend Kevin Rettig, Pastor of Holy Angels Church, Arcadia, Reverend Jacob Hsieh, Faculty member, Mary, Star of the Sea High School, San Pedro, Reverend Riz J. Carranza, Pastor of Saint Peter Claver Church, Simi Valley, and
Reverend Thomas Asia, Pastor of Saint Martha Church, Valinda. Topics include The Church goes forth as a community of missionary disciples, The temptations we face as pastoral workers, We as the church are the missional disciples of God that proclaim the Gospel, The importance of preaching within the Liturgy, The Poor have a special place in God’s people, and Let the fire of the Holy Spirit burn in our hearts. A Sinulog is planned. Lunch is provided and the Holy Mass is celebrated after the Novena. A blessing of the Infant Jesus images and a blessing of children will take place in the mass. Now on its 39th year, the novena is attended by devotees from all over the Unites States, the Philippines, Australia, and other parts of the globe. For more information, please contact Leo Nevada at (818) 633 3926 or visit the organization’s website at www.IJPAG.com. To attend the novena via livestream, go to YouTube or Facebook, on the Search field type OLG Encino.
Enchong on how to make use of self-doubt By
MaRinel CRuz Inquirer.net
EXPERIENCING self-doubt helps you become a better actor, according to Enchong Dee. “You have two ways to make use of it: One is to allow self-doubt to guide your life decisions. If you keep thinking, ‘I’m not enough; I’m not worthy,’ then at some point you will not be able to go on anymore.” The 33-year-old added: “The other way is for you to use that self-doubt to better yourself. I’m thankful that I have people around me who
constantly hold me during times when I feel too weak, when I feel I lack enough strength to go on. “What being in this business for 15 years has taught me is that I can’t keep showing people that I’m happy, that I’m always feeling positive. It’s because I also experience low moments,” said Enchong, who recently took a leave of absence from show biz work. “What I’m doing now is helping myself to recharge, to recover. I need it. I also need to make a decision everyday to keep on going,” said the actor, who has since returned to Naga Enchong Dee Photo from Instagram/@mr_enchongdee City, his hometown.
Sharon on what she learned... From Page 9 the story’s main character, Cardo Dalisay, in the 1996 film version. “Pakikisama sa mga katrabaho, that’s what I learned from FPJ. He taught by example, not words. He became bigger in my eyes because he made himself smaller in order to reach out to other people. He treated everyone like his equal. He was the same to me and to the staff and crew he worked with,” Sharon said of FPJ. Working with ‘Da King’ Sharon worked with FPJ in two movies, “Kahit Konting Pagtingin”(1990) and “Minsan Pa” (1995). “I remember I was taping for my show in ABS-CBN. He called me to ask if I could go to
where he was. I said, ‘But I’m in a shoot.’ He said, ‘Nagyayabang ako dito na kilala kita.’ He was in a sari-sari store. When I did come, he told the old lady running the store, ‘See? I told you I know Sharon.’ The place was near Sto. Domingo Church. I just bought a bottle of soft drink and then went back to the studio,” recalled Sharon. Sharon said she understood while working with FPJ why people called him “Da King.” She explained: “He had an awesome public persona. He was one of the biggest stars and yet he was very humble. While other stars tend to regard highly of themselves, FPJ was the perfect example of humility with the way he took as his responsibility to earn the respect of everyone around him. He was truly a good person.”
The Asian Jour nal MDWK MAGAZINE - January 26, 2022
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SFIO announces 2022 roadmap following successful year of acquisitions, restructuring SMOKEFREE Innotech, Inc. (SFIO), a leading asset management company and innovation group, is pleased to share details around its pending name change to Starfleet Innotech, Inc., its ongoing transformation initiatives, and its progress towards uplisting to the Nasdaq within the next three years. In the weeks to come, SFIO hopes to receive final confirmation on their proposed name change to Starfleet Innotech, Inc. – a company name that truly captures the team’s mission of innovating across new frontiers. It’s a step of SFIO’s team and they’re really excited about it. When SFIO began developing their plans for a network of innovative companies working in conjunction to explore new frontiers of innovation, SFIO couldn’t help but draw inspiration from the sci-fi classics they grew up with. As Starfleet, the team is leading this new alliance, sharing knowledge and resources to help their businesses boldly go where none of their industries have gone before. The name change will be a fitting start to 2022, following a big year of restructuring for SFIO. As SFIO continued to grow the global portfolio of companies throughout 2021 and embarked on a series of vertical and horizontal integrations to best consolidate their resources, resulting in a more efficient, more productive, and ultimately more profitable family of businesses operating across a shared, streamlined supply chain. Today, SFIO’s three core divisions – Food & Beverage, Real Estate, and Technology – represent a clear, coherent strategy for growth over the next three years. The Food and Beverage (F&B) division was a consolidation of the businesses that comprised their international supply chain powering brands like the flagship enterprise, Epiphany Cafe. These consisted of firms across food, franchising, coffee, and beverage solutions. To date, they’ve established partnerships with wholesale bakeries and food commissaries; developed better supply chain management, logistics, and administrative systems; localized the franchising and license procurement strategies; and forged new distribution channels for their coffee and beverage solution products. In consolidating these businesses under one division, SFIO’s team was able to more effectively organize their complementary resources, and focus efforts towards turning their F&B businesses into SFIO’s vehicles for entering new global markets. This year, SFIO is exploring expansions for Epiphany Cafe across Australia, the Philippines, Malaysia, the United Arab Emirates, and the United States. Market research, feasibility studies, and financial modeling are already underway, with pilot sites across these regions currently being selected. SFIO is also in the process of shortlisting the master franchise partners and developing brand conversion strategies nuanced to these new markets. In the Philippines, SFIO partnered with FJ Prime Management, Inc. to spearhead the growth of Epiphany Cafe in the country. Similarly, SFIO has established a partnership with Epiphany Ventures Corporation to grow their footprint across Malaysia. As part of these plans, the team of SFIO is currently in talks with key convenience store brands in Malaysia and Australia to carry Epiphany’s signature pillow-soft donuts. As for the 5-in-1 instant coffee offering under SFIO’s Gorgeous Coffee brand, they already received initial orders from the partner distributors across the United States and Australia, with the United Arab Emirates and the Philippines soon to follow. To fuel this expansion, SFIO team built the Real Estate division around a series of high-yield projects, the proceeds of which will be reinvested in their future growth. SFIO ended 2021 announcing that local permits have been obtained and land development initiatives are already underway for many of their exciting and innovative township projects. In addition, they are actively exploring non-dilutive funding options for these initiatives, the details of which they will be sharing in the months to come. As SFIO begin pre-selling and staging marketing roadshows for these projects, they will be launching a new brand around SFIO’s Real Estate division to communicate the type of future-ready communities SFIO aim to create – communities that embrace the best of smart city technologies, health and wellness systems, and opportunities around medical tourism. Finally, SFIO established a Technology division as SFIO’s key enabler, underpinning all their efforts as a conglomerate. In terms of strategy, this division will not only augment business operations, unlock innovative new revenue streams, and grow the intellectual property assets, but will also serve as SFIO’s backbone as they grow as an agile organization. For example, as SFIO concurrently enters new markets with Epiphany Cafe, part of ensuring the sustainability of the growth is embracing new technologies to better manage the operations at scale – starting with a unified, streamlined logistics platform. With this platform, SFIO’s goal would not only be to standardize the operations of different businesses across the supply chain, but to also bring value to the franchisees, and, ultimately, their customers who will now benefit from a truly seamless, tech-powered system. Similarly, their Technology division is hard at work on a proprietary platform to manage all the global Real Estate projects, specifically when it comes to supporting their agents’ customer engagement and sales workflows. Through the use of artificial intelligence tools, this platform will serve as the scaffolding for future tech services, housing their pipeline of real estate innovations. SFIO’s goal with this suite of tools is to eventually offer it to other developers as well, to help them showcase their real estate portfolios and augment their operations. SFIO’s technology efforts around real estate aren’t limited to showcasing them, however, but will be fundamentally integrated into each of the developments, beginning with the big investments they’re making in pioneering community health systems. SFIO recently partnered with Fort Health Data Systems, a startup that develops health and wellness dashboards for communities-as-a-whole. With Fort Health,
they’re able to pull in individual health data points, as well as environmental data from Internet of Things (IoT)-enabled sensors to build predictive models for proactive community care. And to really take those data gathering systems to the next level, SFIO has NeuroSky, a Silicon Valley-based biosensor solution firm that develops bleeding edge hardware like brainwave monitoring headbands and smartwatches for tracking wellbeing. The company believes that integrating NeuroSky’s hardware with Fort Health’s community health platforms, then deploying those systems across the township projects will be a real game-changer for tech-driven public health systems. Just as SFIO intends to do with the real estate platform, this community approach to care will then be expanded and deployed to other settings, taking a blend of proprietary software and innovative hardware to health institutions, universities and workplaces around the globe. By providing the means to meaningfully gather and analyze health data, SFIO will be enabling communities to build measurable, proactive health strategies, leading to greater savings by ensuring people don’t become ill in the first place. Finally, the most fascinating is the work the Technology division is doing with digital tokens – specifically NFTs (nonfungible tokens) – to allow the shareholders, partners, and other community stakeholders to participate more meaningfully in SFIO’s growth and operations. They’ve been studying a lot of the interesting ways grassroots communities are using decentralized technologies to structure their organizations. In designing this new system, SFIO will be taking cues from the firms experimenting with blockchain and digital tokens to build what they hope will be the new gold standard for asset management platforms. While these technologies will serve SFIO well as they grow exponentially in the years to come, the real test of the conglomerate’s mettle will not be in its ability to innovate, but in its ability to do so collaboratively. This past year SFIO’s team has built SFIO into a truly global community, adding to their presence in New Zealand and Australia with the launch of new offices and teams across the UAE, Malaysia, the Philippines, and the U.S. – where they’ve engaged with experienced firms to help lead the marketing efforts. With such an expansive footprint, the only way to accomplish their shared mission is to establish a united front. And so, following 2021’s restructuring, SFIO has embarked on a new commitment – investing heavily in building SFIO into a truly agile ecosystem. As an asset management company, SFIO decided to adopt the same lean-agile framework prevalent among hyper-scale tech developments firms for three reasons. First, it is the best way to ensure that as SFIO grows exponentially in the years to come, they do so flexibly and sustainably. It is essential that they decentralize decision-making wherever possible, so as to allow each of SFIO’s global units and business divisions to champion their own growth and efficiently respond to their own needs. Second, this framework provides the means to rapidly stage new innovations within the divisions and iterate on them independently, before scaling their successes across the SFIO ecosystem-at-large. Third, this framework recognizes the vital role that talent plays in fueling growth. To accomplish all this, SFIO has gathered a world-class team of professionals tasked with spearheading SFIO’s various initiatives. Transforming their corporate framework is no small task and will require a strong community, united by a culture of collaborative innovation. Just this month, SFIO established a new communication team, whose role will be to both shape a clear and consistent external messaging strategy as SFIO operates in concert with their many stakeholders, and to organize many corporate teams around their shared goals, supporting each and every one of SFIO’s units, and establishing the channels they need to collaborate freely. That collaborative, transparent culture extends beyond their business units, encompassing the entire corporate community. Beginning this month, they will be facilitating regular video conferencing calls with their key investors and partners to keep the stakeholders abreast on their activities. In each of these monthly sessions, they will be introducing new initiatives, sharing important updates, and calling for they shareholders and investors’ feedback – all of which reflect the stance that each member of the SFIO community plays a vital role in SFIO’s growth. Further, SFIO has been curating the growth of the top-level leadership to guide their expansion, led by the appointment of additional non-voting advisory board members. A series of appointments to leadership: Jonathan Petalver, Roger Oriel, and Michael Venezuela. These leaders have been crucial to helping SFIO achieve corporate excellence in these early stages, and they will continue to play even more vital roles as SFIO expands. Joining now on board, Jeths Lacson, the chairman of SFIO, is excited to announce Jose Gerardo Noble, Stanley Yang, and Vince Caruso, as its global leaders in real estate development, technology, and marketing. In the coming weeks, SFIO will be sharing more information on their progress towards developing the audited financials of each of their subsidiaries; introducing a new class of preferred shares to be used in securing strategic partners, hiring key officers, and closing new acquisitions; and placing SFIO on the OTCQB Venture Market, as a stepping stone towards their larger goal of uplisting to the Nasdaq. The CEO and chairman of SFIO, Jeths Lacson ,would like to outline the strategies they will be employing as SFIO embarks on an ambitious mission of growth and transformation. They have a world-class team assembled to make this happen. But to achieve their goal of uplisting in the next three years, they will need a united front – not only among their global teams and divisions, but across all stakeholders in the community. With the shareholders and valued business partners’ continued support, they will accomplish SFIO’s mission to boldly go where no conglomerate has gone before.
(Advertising Supplement)
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The Asian Jour nal MDWK MAGAZINE - January 26, 2022
Gretchen shares 5 steps for taking care of your mental health By Alex
BrosAs Inquirer.net
FOR Star Patroller and entertainment anchor Gretchen Fullido, it is very important to
look after one’s mental health. She thus spoke about ways to boost one’s mental capacity and shared it with fans. First, she suggested a change of scenery or
environment. “A change of scene or a change of pace is good for your mental health. It could be a five-minute pause from work or from cleaning your house, a half-hour lunch break at work or a weekend exploring somewhere new,” she said in her Instagram page on Jan. 23, where she can be seen on a beach with her dog. Second, she advised for people to have “me time” which is time alone with one’s self, because “a few minutes can be enough to de-stress you.” Third, she believes in taking a break through exercise and making one’s self fit. “Taking a break may mean being very active — in sports, walking, running, swimming or just about doing any workout or it may also mean not doing very much at all,” she said. Fourth, relaxing is also a form of improving one’s mental health. The broadcaster advised, “Take a deep breath… and relax. Try yoga or meditation, or just putting your feet up — you can do this wherever you are.” Lastly, Fullido suggests to “listen to your body” and have enough time to sleep. “If you’re really tired, give yourself time to sleep. Without good sleep, our mental health suffers too and our concentration goes downhill,” she said. “You deserve to REST. Sometimes the world can wait.”
Gretchen Fullido Photo from Instagram/@gretsfullido
Do I have to disclose my Bitcoin to my spouse in my divorce case? Barrister’s Corner Atty. Kenneth UrsUA reyes BITCOIN and other cryptocurrency has become popular lately as a new store of value. It is decentralized and not subject to regulation in any jurisdiction. It can be stored in a digital wallet or hard drive. Due to its lack of regulation, it is easy for one to assume that it is not necessary to disclose this in one’s divorce case specially if the other spouse has no clue of its existence. Well, this assumption is clearly misplaced in the context of California Family Code. Fam. Code, § 721, recognizes the confidential relationship held by spouses. That relationship is a fiduciary relationship imposing a duty of the highest good faith and fair dealing on each spouse. Also within that division, Fam. Code, § 1100, addresses management and control of community property. The fiduciary duty spouses owe one another continues after separation, including the accurate and complete disclosure of all assets and liabilities in which the party has or may have an interest or obligation and all current earnings, accumulations, and expenses, including an immediate, full, and accurate update or augmentation to the extent there have been material changes (Fam. Code, § 2012, subd. (a)(1)). Taken together, Fam. Code, §§ 721, 1100, and 2102, impose on a managing spouse affirmative, wide-ranging duties to disclose and account for the existence, valuation, and disposition of all community assets from the date of separation through final property division. These statutes obligate a managing spouse to disclose soon after
court properly found that a husband breached his fiduciary duty to his former wife and ordered him to transfer bitcoins and other cryptocurrency to her pursuant to the parties’ judgment of dissolution and to pay her attorney fees and costs because information he withheld about his cryptocurrency investments was material, and there was substantial evidence that his breach impaired the wife’s interest in their community estate. in re Marriage of deSouza, 54 Cal. App. 5th 25. To avoid the costly outcome of getting sanctioned and awarded attorney’s fees against you, it is important to provide full and complete disclosure of all your financial affairs during your divorce case including any Bitcoin and cryptocurrency which you own during and after the marriage. *** Please note that this article is not legal advice and is not intended as legal advice. The article is intended to provide only general, non-specific legal information. This article is not intended to cover all the issues related to the topic discussed. The specific facts fiduciary duty, Fam. Code, that apply to your matter may make § 1101, subd. (a), affords the outcome different than would be each spouse a claim against anticipated by you. This article does the other for any breach of create any attorney client relationship fiduciary duty that results in between you and the Law Offices of an impairment to his or her Kenneth U. Reyes, APLC. This article is interest in the community not a solicitation. estate, including, but not *** limited to, a single transaction Attorney Kenneth Ursua Reyes is a or a pattern or series of transactions, which transaction Certified Family Law Specialist. He was President of the Philippine American or transactions have caused Bar Association. He is a member of both or will cause a detrimental impact to the claimant spouse’s the Family law section and Immigration law section of the Los Angeles County interest in the community Bar Association. He is a graduate of estate. Remedies for a breach Southwestern University Law School of this duty that impairs another spouse’s interest in the in Los Angeles and California State University, San Bernardino School community estate include an of Business Administration. He has award to the other spouse of 50 percent, or an amount equal extensive CPA experience prior to law practice. LAW OFFICES OF KENNETH to 50 percent, of any asset undisclosed or transferred in REYES, APC is located at 3699 Wilshire breach of the fiduciary duty Blvd., Suite 747, Los Angeles, CA, 90010. plus attorney fees and court Tel. (213) 388-1611 or e-mail kenneth@ costs (§ 1101, subds. (a), (g)) kenreyeslaw.com. Visit our website at in re Marriage of deSouza, Kenneth@kenreyeslaw.com. 54 Cal. App. 5th 25, a trial (Advertising Supplement) separation all the property that belongs or might belong to the community, and its value, and then to account for the management of that property, revealing any material changes in the community estate, such as the transfer or loss of assets. This strict transparency both discourages unfair dealing and empowers the nonmanaging spouse to remedy any breach of fiduciary duty by giving that spouse the information concerning the community’s business needed for the exercise of his or her rights, including the right to pursue a claim for impairment to his or her interest in the community estate. What are the remedies available if a spouse breached his or her fiduciary duty? If a spouse breaches his or her
“Fam. Code, § 721, recognizes the confidential relationship held by spouses. That relationship is a fiduciary relationship imposing a duty of the highest good faith and fair dealing on each spouse.”
Immigrant Living: 101 and Beyond Monette AdevA MAglAyA (Continued from last week’s issue …) Daedalus took off flapping his wings faster and faster to get vertical lift-off and escape gravity. Icarus followed suit and took off shortly after. As they flew, the people on the ground in Crete watched in amazement wondering whether the winged creatures are the gods themselves flying. Icarus trailed his father closely at first, following his flight pattern and struggling to take heed of his father’s admonitions. But feeling an overwhelming sense of growing power in his ability to fly, reveling in his freedom and giving in to his impetuous, youthful nature, Icarus deviated a little at first, taking little swoops and side trips and catching up with his father who was intently flying on a steady speed and altitude. As Icarus swooped, dived and indulged frivolously in his aerial acrobatics, Icarus soon forgot his father’s words and flew higher and higher towards the noonday sun. Then the wax in his wings melted, the wooden framework broke apart and the feathers blew away. Wingless and panicking, Icarus plunged headlong like deadweight into the blue waters. Daedalus swooped down in hot pursuit to save his son but it was much too late. All he saw were a few feathers floating on the surface. Daedalus, with a heavy heart at the tragic loss of his beloved Icarus, managed to fly to Sicily. In his grief, Daedalus retired his wings, lost his love for life and never flew again. Over and over again through the generations, we see this tendency of some of the young ones to “forget” the things they have been taught and allow hubris and folly to rule. Some throw away everything they have learned and painstakingly worked for in one impetuous decision or action. It is as if their overwhelming sense of freedom, newly-attained
Children just like you (2 of 2 parts)
“The deepest definition of youth is life as yet untouched by tragedy.” —Alfred North Whitehead independence and sense of power goads them to “fly close to the sun.” Humility gets torpedoed and overweening pride rules. They feel they no longer need guidance from anyone. Sometimes a good scare or a tiny thorn of bad experience can be humbling and worth more than a lifetime of warnings, advice and admonitions to nudge prideful youth back to reality and on the straight and narrow. While we may think that this tendency of the youth today is unique to our times, we only have to look back several thousand years to know that the scenario may have changed, the cast of characters in every generation in every nation may be different, but the predilection for hubris particularly in the young, remains the same. Notice the youth within your immediate daily orbit. With few exceptions, you might see that the egocentric self-absorption that consumes the severely distracted young these days is borne of hubris that a modern, tech-savvy culture seems to engender with short-cuts that only serve to short-circuit. Self-confidence and a healthy self-esteem come only after the young have paid hefty dues in life’s lessons learned. Humility, erroneously perceived as meekness these days, is scoffed at and swept under the rug. And yet without humility that instinctively knows and accepts that one needs to learn from others to grow in wisdom, no real learning is possible. There are lives all around us who can serve as models that we can emulate and cautionary tales we can learn from. On the part of adults who have been there and done all that and have the scars to show for it, achieving perspective and
an empathetic bone are needed to remember we were once just as young, just as foolish, or perhaps even more so. But that we praise the God of our being and with all humility admit that we were the lucky ones who got a pass because life was magnanimous enough to let us get past that harrowing stage of youthful folly, with barely a scratch and live long enough to see the cycle repeated in our children. Sigh. Picture a flashback. You can almost see your mother or father, eyes rolling upward, throwing their hands in the air in sheer frustration after you’ve committed a stupid, arrogant stunt or acted like a mindless jackass for the nth time when you were young, quipping a line that sounds like a curse, “May you have children just like you!” Of course, it works just as well on the flip side of the coin. When you have children who have finally become wise after being foolish, you can say the same line as a blessing and heave a sigh of relief. Take heed, young ones. One day, you will become adults who will have children of your own. Then you’ll know that what goes around, definitely comes around. Yet through it all, if you have faith, the size of a “mustard seed” and keep praying through all the seasons in this journey called “life” we eventually realize with a firm conviction that there IS the God of mercy of love ever present in the lives of every generation. *** The opinions, beliefs and viewpoints expressed by the author do not necessarily reflect the opinions, beliefs and viewpoints of the Asian Journal, its management, editorial board and staff.
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Nota Bene: To send comments, email monette. maglaya@asianjournalinc.com
The Asian Jour nal MDWK MAGAZINE - January 26, 2022
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