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More Filipinos confident
confident that the Philippine economy will improve in the next 12 months, according to a Social Weather Stations survey released on Thursday, March 9. The survey, which was conducted through inperson interviews from Dec. 10 to 14 last year, further pointed out that only nine percent of the
1,200 respondents expect the economy to worsen, while the remaining 33 percent remained neutral about it. This brought the net economic optimism score to +40 (percentage of economic optimists PAGE A2
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by AJPRESS
CALIFORNIA Attorney General Rob Bonta, the first Filipino American to hold the office, had a ceremonial swearing-in during a recent community event in Los Angeles.
LA Mayor Karen Bass administered the oath of office during the ceremony held at the Japanese American National Museum on Sunday, March 5 as Bonta’s wife, Assemblymember Mia Bonta (D-Alameda), held the Bible. Bonta, previously a state assemblymember, was first appointed by Governor Gavin Newsom as attorney general in March 2021, before being elected to a full term last November 2022. He was sworn in and delivered his inaugural address in Sacramento last January 6.
The attorney general declared that it was “important…to celebrate this special moment in Los
by RON LOPEZ Philstar.com
OVER THE SPRATLY ISLANDS — As a Philippine Coast Guard plane carrying journalists flew over the Spratly Islands in the hotly disputed South China Sea, a Chinese voice issued a stern command over the radio: "Leave immediately."
The order came from a radio operator on a Chinese coast guard vessel 3,500 feet (1,066 metres) below -- one of dozens of ships seen prowling the waters.
AFP was one of several media outlets given the rare opportunity on Thursday, March 9 to fly over some of the dozens of tiny islands and reefs where the Philippines, China and several other nations have competing claims.
Beijing claims sovereignty over almost the entire South China Sea, including the Spratlys, ignoring an international ruling that its claims have no legal basis.
In the past decade, it has ripped up thousands of hectares of reef in the archipelago to create militarised islands with runways, ports and radar systems.
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by DANIZA FERNANDEZ Inquirer.net
MANILA — President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. called for group cooperation to guarantee “free, fair, credible” elections in the Philippines.
Marcos made the remark as he graced the first-ever National Election Summit, organized by the Commission on Elections (Comelec), on Friday, March 10. “I call for the active cooperation of stakeholders, experts, and civil society organizations to ensure free, PAGE A2
MANILA — Military cooperation between the Philippines and the United States will “seriously endanger regional peace and stability,” the Chinese Embassy in Manila said on Friday, March 10.
The embassy issued the statement after U.S. Under Secretary of State Victoria Nuland visited the Philippines and said that four additional
Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement (Edca) sites will bring economic opportunities and jobs to Manila.
“Creating economic opportunities and jobs through military cooperation is tantamount to quenching thirst with poison and gouging flesh to heal wounds. Such cooperation will seriously endanger regional peace and stability and drag the Philippines into the abyss of geopolitical strife and damage
