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DICT: Retool, reskill workers amid AI threat of disruption WITH artificial intelligence tools threatening to replace Filipino workers in jobs and disrupting workplace, the Department of Information and Communication Technology said Thursday it is preparing for the potential effects of AI development.
VOL. XXXVII • NO. 121• 3 SECTIONS 12 PAGES • P20 • FRIDAY, JUNE 16, 2023 • www.manilastandard.net • mst.daydesk@gmail.com
Marcos: Diversify export portfolio
DICT Secretary Ivan John Uy believes this can be addressed by teaching and training Filipinos to work with AI so they can adapt. "People ask me, 'Will AI replace a person in his job?' The way I see it, no. Next page
STRONG GROWTH TRAJECTORY.
President Ferdinand Marcos Jr., in his speech during the International Trade Forum on Thursday, June 15, 2023, says dynamic innovation will be at the heart of the transformation and growth of the exports industry. Joey Razon
Unveils 6-year development plan, cites $49-b in untapped revenues By Vince Lopez
P
RESIDENT Ferdinand Marcos Jr. on Thursday unveiled a six-year plan to elevate the country’s export game to compete more effectively with its neighbors.
"The best are here in Asia. They are our competitors," President Marcos told reporters following the launch of the Philippine Export Development Plan in Taguig City. "That is why we have to bring up our… export game a little bit and support our exporters so that they can compete in foreign markets. And that they are able to be not only suppliers but also industrial consumers of the products that are around the world,” he added. In his speech during the event, Marcos stressed that the Philippines has been falling behind its ASEAN neighbors when it comes to trade. "We still have to grapple with critical issues, such as a comparatively less-diversified export portfolio and trade barriers and fric-
tions," he said. "I came across a rather eye-opening statistic... that 40 percent of all our exports are only one product. So the level of diversification is something that we have to look at and we have to improve in the coming years," Marcos said. Despite this, the President said he was confident that the industry was headed for a bright future, with $49 billion worth of revenues still untapped. Aside from the PEDP, the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) would help the Philippines to boost its exports, Marcos said. The RCEP, a free trade agreement among 15 countries, including the Philippines and its nine Next page
Economic team woos SG firms to invest in Maharlika PNP to deploy By Julito G. Rada
SHOWCASING PH ECONOMY. The economic team, led by Finance Secretary Benjamin Diokno (third from left), holds the seventh Philippine Economic Briefing in Singapore on June 15, 2023 at the Fullerton Hotel to showcase the country’s robust growth and new investment opportunities. Other members of the economic team who attended the briefing are Budget Secretary Amenah Pangandaman and National Economic and Development Authority Secretary Arsenio Balisacan.
FINANCE Secretary Benjamin Diokno on Thursday encouraged the Singaporebased business community to invest in the Philippines, including the upcoming Maharlika Investment Fund, and take part in the country’s high-growth momentum. Diokno said during the Philippine Economic Briefing (PEB) in Singapore the opening up of some sectors for 100-percent foreign ownership could be an incentive for investors to invest in the Philippines. “The private sector is welcome to invest in 194 infrastructure projects. If you want to come in, you can invest in those projects. You can also invest in the Maharlika Investment Fund,” Diokno said. Diokno said learning from some of the strongest economies in the world, Next page
22,000 cops for SONA in July
By Charles Dantes OVER 22,000 cops will be deployed for the upcoming State of the Nation Address of President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. in July, the Philippine National Police said Thursday. Maj. Gen. Edgar Alan Okubo, PNP National Capital Region Police Office Director, has been assigned to lead Task Force SONA to secure the event. Okubo said the deployment of personnel will be distributed to all possible routes Mr. Marcos may traverse going to the Batasang Pambansa Complex in Quezon City, and areas where rallies are expected. Next page
Albay eyes permanent relocation Magnitude 6.3 quake hits Batangas, parts of Luzon of residents in 6-km danger zone By Charles Dantes, Rio N. Araja and Joel E. Zurbano ALBAY is considering permanently relocating residents who lie within the sixkilometer radius of Mayon Volcano’s permanent danger zone, Gov. Edcel Greco Lagman said Thursday. “This perennial problem has to stop,” Lagman said in Filipino during a televised
briefing. “We experience this every three or four years. Permanent resettlement is really necessary. Let's move the residents to places beyond the danger zone.” Lagman said, however, that a law needs to be enacted so that the government may legally relocate families living within the PDZ. Despite government reminders that entry into Mayon’s PDZ is not allowed, Next page
World’s largest kidney stone at 801g
NEW WORLD RECORD. This handout
photograph released by the Sri Lankan Army on June 14, 2023 shows a military medical officer measuring a kidney stone removed from a retired soldier that weighed 801 grams and measured 13.37 centimeters long, recorded as the world's largest kidney stone. Sri Lankan Army / AFP
SRI LANKAN military doctors have removed what is now recorded as the world's largest kidney stone from a 62-year-old retired soldier, the army said Wednesday. The stone removed from ex-sergeant Canistus Coonge weighed 801 grams, more than five times the weight of an average male kidney, the army said. Coonge's kidney stone measured 13.37 centimeters (5.26 inches) long, compared to an average kidney which Next page
A MAGNITUDE 6.3 earthquake hit Calatagan town in Batangas on Thursday morning with the tremor felt across Luzon, including Metro Manila, the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology said. Although no major damage was reported from the quake as of press time, the temblor shook parts of the National Capital Region, including major transport systems, sending people streaming out of buildings weeks after the most recent national earthquake drill. The runway at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport was closed for inspection, temporarily halting its operations, along with other airports and the railways crisscrossing the big city. In a statement, the Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines said the building and equipment at San Jose Airport in Mindoro, across the sea from Batangas, did not sustain major damage. The cracks found in two stations of
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FEELING THE EARTH MOVE. Students and faculty members can be seen evacuating from Araullo High School along UN Avenue in Manila following a magnitude 6.3 earthquake that rocked Calatagan, Batangas, with tremors felt across the capital. Norman Cruz
DENR: Include waste pickers in plastic management By Rio N. Araja THE Department of Environment and Natural Resources seeks to employ waste pickers from the informal sector and integrate them into an expanded producer responsibility (EPR) system for plastic packaging waste.
To ensure that no one is left behind as the country transitions toward a circular economy, DENR Secretary Antonia Loyzaga cited the need for a more holistic integration of the informal sector to the EPR system. The informal waste sector in the Philippines include waste pickers at dumps
and communal waste collection points. The DENR chief cited the significant role of the sector in waste collection and management, and the potential contribution it could bring being the “backbone of the currently limited collection services and partly of recycling” in the country. Next page