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IN MET R MANILAO
VOL. XXXVIII • NO. 28 • 3 SECTIONS 12 PAGES MARCH 10, 2024
FOR WOMEN’S DAY. Over a thousand people attended
the International Women’s Day Summit at SM Aura in Taguig City, headlined by keynote speaker and Senate President Pro Tempore Loren Legarda (third from left). She was joined by (from right) SM Supermalls President Steven Tan, UN Women Country Programme Coordinator Rosalyn Mesina, Philippine Commission on Women Officer-in-Charge Khay Ann Magundayao-Borlado and Deputy Executive Director Kristine Balmes, and moderator Bernadette Sembrano. www.manilastandard.net • mst.daydesk@gmail.com
SOLON: FILIPINO TEACHERS LEAVING FOR JOBS ABROAD UN REPORT: 44M TUTORS NEEDED WORLDWIDE BY 2030
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ORE Filipino teachers are leaving the country to teach in neighboring countries, Senator Sherwin Gatchalian said Saturday, as the global shortage in educators continues. This dovetails with a recent United Nations global report, which revealed that teachers may come in short supply worldwide by 2030. The report said there is an urgent need for 44 million primary and secondary teachers worldwide by 2030, with seven out of 10 educators needed at the secondary level. Sub-Saharan Africa faces a particularly daunting challenge, with an estimated demand for 15 million new teachers by 2030. A collaborative effort between the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) and the International Task Force on Teachers for Education 2030, aims to address this looming crisis by mobilizing recommended actions to empower, recruit, train, and support teachers. Gatchalian, the Senate education committee chair, said he has talked to teachers who have left the country, citing higher pay in neighboring Southeast Asian countries where their fluency in English makes them even more employable. “From my observation this has happened based on my trips overseas where I’m coordinating with the embassies and catching up with fellow countrymen who are mostly teachers,” he said in an interview with Teleradyo Serbisyo. “A lot of Asian countries hire Filipino teachers because they are fluent in English and they are adept in teaching. While we are grateful for more job opportunities, it can be quite concerning because in turn, we will lose more teachers in the country,” he added. Citing the UN study study, Gatchalian said countries globally are short of teachers, and the Philippines is one of the affected countries. Joel Zurbano with AFP
READY FOR RAMADAN. This file photo shows the Dimaukom Mosque or Pink Mosque in Datu Saudi Ampatuan, Maguindanao, which will see an influx of worshipers with the anticipated start of t he Muslim holy month of Ramadan on Sunday or Monday. Meanwhile, members of the Philippine Coast Guard help clean the Golden Mosque in Quiapo, Manila (inset). Norman Cruz
DA STARTS FULL AUDIT ON NFA’S RICE DEAL PRACTICES By Othel V. Campos THE Department of Agriculture is launching a full audit of the National Food Authority’s rice management practices following the controversial sale of 75,000 bags of government rice buffer stocks to private traders worth an estimated P93.75 million. Agriculture Secretary Francisco P. Tiu Laurel Jr. ordered the agency’s Internal Audit Service to examine all rice disposition data since 2019, the year the Rice Tariffication Law came into effect.
“DA-NFA officials and personnel are directed to extend their full assistance and cooperation to DA-IAS to ensure the successful conduct of this audit,” he said. The RTL restricts NFA’s ability to sell rice directly to consumers, raising concerns about potential misuse by officials or traders, particularly regarding the sale of older buffer stocks. “We want to see if there is a pattern of rice disposition that is disadvantageous to the government,” the DA chief said. The audit coincides with the recent
suspension of 139 NFA personnel, including administrator Roderico Bioco and assistant administrator John Robert Hermano, by the Ombudsman. The anti-graft body is investigating allegations of corruption linked to the supposedly disadvantageous sale of roughly 75,000 bags of rice to private entities. NFA records indicate that as of Feb. 1 this year, the agency held 361,396 bags of milled rice, with nearly half or 193,386 bags, in storage for more than three months.
50K IN OR. MINDORO GET P1.2B IN BPSF AID By Maricel V. Cruz
CARD AID. Speaker Ferdinand Martin G. Romualdez (center) leads Oriental Mindoro Gov. Humerlito Dolor (second from right) and 1st District Rep. Arnan Panaligan (third from left) in the Cash Assistance and Rice Distribution (CARD) Program to 200 beneficiaries at Mindoro State University Gymnasium in Calapan City on Saturday. Ver Noveno
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HOUSE Speaker Martin Romualdez announced plans to distribute P1.2 billion in cash aid and programs to approximately 50,000 residents of Oriental Mindoro during the two-day Bagong Pilipinas Serbisyo Fair (BPSF) over the weekend. This started with 7,000 Oriental Mindoro residents receiving P23 million in scholarship, farm, and livelihood assistance on Saturday under three separate programs under the House of Representatives in cooperation with national agencies upon the directive of President Marcos. The Speaker led the distribution of financial assistance to beneficiaries
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in the province under the Integrated Scholarships and Incentives Program (ISIP) for the Youth; the Start-up, Investment, Business Opportunity, and Livelihood (SIBOL) program; and the Farmers Assistance for Recovery and Modernization (FARM). An additional 2,000 residents received more aid under the Cash and Rice Distribution (CARD) Program, which is distributed by legislative districts of the House of Representatives. Romualdez, a key proponent of the BPSF, emphasized the government’s commitment to bringing services closer to the people, particularly in providing financial assistance and essential provisions such as rice.
IN GAZA, NO JOY AS RAMADAN MONTH BEGINS PALESTINIAN TERRITORIES—For Muslims worldwide, Ramadan is a time of prayer, reflection and joyful evening meals, but all Gazans wish for this year is an end to five months of war and suffering. It is a hope shared widely across the Islamic world, where the thoughts of many are with Gaza ahead of the fasting month which starts with the sighting of the crescent moon on Sunday or Monday. The war sparked by Hamas’s October 7 attack against Israel has devastated Gaza, killed tens of thousands of Palestinians and triggered violence elsewhere in the Middle East, from Lebanon to the seas off Yemen. Amid the ruins of southern Gaza, Nevin al-Siksek sat recently outside her makeshift tent, distracting her young daughter from the carnage around them with a plastic Ramadan lantern. The colourful fanous lanterns are an iconic symbol of Ramadan, the ninth month of the Islamic calendar marked by dawn-to-dusk fasting and, in better times, festive evening iftar meals with family and friends. Across Gaza this year, the lights are among the few signs signalling the coming holy month, amid dire warnings of mass starvation. While international mediators were hoping for a truce in time for Ramadan, no breakthrough had come by Friday. AFP
LOOK AT OUTSIDE THREATS, EXPERTS ADVISE ON WPS By Charles Dantes THE Philippines must strengthen its maritime and air capabilities to defend and protect its territory from the threat of foreign invasion, an analyst said on Saturday. At the Saturday News Forum in Quezon City, De La Salle University professor Renato de Castro even suggested that the Marcos administration should now focus on external threats, particularly China’s provocative actions towards the Philippines in the latter’s waters. Meanwhile, President Marcos’ decision to hold off on invoking the Philippines-US Mutual Defense Treaty after the latest skirmishes with Chinese ships in the West Philippine Sea was the correct call, according to maritime law expert Professor Jay Batongbacal. Batongbacal stressed the importance of peaceful and diplomaticsolutions for issues in the WPS, pointing out that the MDT, while outlining mutual defense in case of an armed attack, also emphasizes cooperation in broader security challenges. As director of the University of the Philippines Institute for Maritime Affairs and Law of the Sea, Batongbacal said the government must take an unconventional approach to defend the country’s territory.
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