Category: General

MANILA: Malacañang on Thursday announced the latest batch of appointments made by President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. in at least 15 government agencies, including the Presidential Communications Office (PCO).

In a Facebook post, the PCO bared that columnist Mario Fetalino Jr. will be joining its office as assistant secretary.

Marcos also appointed Benjamin Albarece and Eliseo Cruz as assistant secretaries in the Department of Agriculture and the Department of Justice, respectively.

Based on the new set of presidential appointees, Ma. Carissa Coscolluela was tapped as acting board member of the Cultural Center of the Philippines, while Manjit Tobias Reandi was named as board member of the John Hay Management Corporation, a subsidiary of the Bases Conversion and Development Authority.

Josefina Annabel Bañafa and Wilma Galvante were appointed members of the Movie and Television Review and Classification Board, while Rosalio was designated as a member of the Regional Tripartite Wages and Productivity Board in
Metro Manila, representing the workers sector.

Marcos appointed Elihu Ybañez as the new commissioner of the Presidential Commission on Good Government.

He also named new appointees at the Commission on Higher Education, including Jimmy Catanes, Lora Yusi, and Mary Sylvette Gunigundo who will serve as Directors IV, as well as Marco Cicero Domingo and Rody Garcia who will both hold the Director III post.

The new list also showed that Shiela Imperial will join the Department of Agriculture as Director III, along with Raul Leonin and Vincent Ramos as Provincial Agrarian Reform Program Officers II.

Other appointees were Ana Liza Duran (Director IV at the Department of Health); Aiza Riz Perez-Mendoza (Director III at the Department of Social Welfare and Development); and Adolf Ryan Lantion and Princess May Oral (Directors IV at the National Commission on Indigenous Peoples).

In the Department of Trade and Industry, Marco Maat was appointed Director IV, while Luz Galda will serve as Provincial Trade and Industr
y Officer.

Completing the list of latest appointments were Allen Dalangin, Inocencio Rosario Jr., and Edgar Ybañez who will all hold the Rear Admiral post at the Philippine Coast Guard.

Source: Philippines News Agency

ODIONGAN: The Municipal Agriculture Office (MAO) here said the town is already in a ‘healing process’ after more than four months of battling an African swine fever (ASF) outbreak.

In an interview on Thursday, municipal agriculturist Rexfort Famisaran said there has been no new infection or any active case of ASF in the municipality in recent weeks.

Famisaran noted that quarantine checkpoints that were erected in strategic roads around town in November 2023 have already been dismantled as the municipal government no longer feels that they are necessary.

He said only the quarantine checkpoint located at the Odiongan Port remains to prevent tainted pork from being shipped into the town and possibly causing an ASF reinfection.

However, the importation from adjacent provinces of live pigs, raw pork, and even processed pork is still banned in the municipality, Famisaran said.

He explained that a thorough depopulation of piggeries in affected barangays was instrumental in containing the outbreak of the disease
.

All in all, he said, about 596 hogs belonging to mostly backyard pig farmers in Barangays Tuburan, Paniqui, and Progreso Weste were euthanized in the MAO’s depopulation efforts.

Famisaran, however, assured that the 126 piggery owners affected by the culling were indemnified by the MAO and concerned agencies of the national government.

‘We (MAO) distributed the last of the indemnity checks earlier this week. Of course, they were in different amounts… depending on the number of pigs a farmer lost in the depopulation and the age of the pigs culled,’ he said in Filipino.

He earlier said that the MAO had been paying PHP500 for every newborn piglet, PHP1,000 for every weanling (one- to three-month-old pigs), PHP1,500 for every pig being fattened, PHP2,000 for every sow, PHP2,500 for every breeder, and PHP3,000 for every pregnant sow.

On top of the cash paid by the municipal government, ASF-hit swine farmers in this town are also eligible to collect benefits from the Department of Social Welfare and Developme
nt and the Philippine Crop Insurance Corp.

‘We are now working on securing our RAS (Recognition of Active Surveillance on ASF) certificates from the Department of Agriculture. This certification is a prerequisite to being able to repopulate piggeries that were subjected to the culling,’ Famisaran added.

With the ban on pork importation still in effect and many piggeries still not cleared to restart operations, he said Odiongan’s consumers are still able to buy pork from local piggeries that were unaffected by the ASF outbreak.

Meanwhile, Famisaran said while his town is also experiencing the effects of the El Niño dry spell, it is more muted compared to what is being felt in nearby Occidental Mindoro, and it is not expected to be as ruinous to agriculture here.

Source: Philippines News Agency

MANILA: German airline Lufthansa’s unit in the Philippines has presented the first phase of its expansion plans in the country to President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr., who recently concluded his official trip to Berlin.

In a statement Thursday, Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) Secretary Alfredo Pascual said Lufthansa Technik Philippines (LTP) president and chief executive officer Elmer Lutter discussed the company’s plan to invest USD150 million (PHP8 billion) in Clark, Pampanga.

The DTI said this investment pledge from LTP is on top of the USD4 billion commitments presented to the Chief Executive in a business forum in Berlin on Tuesday.

‘This facility in Clark will complement LTP’s existing 23-hectare technical base and hangar at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA), built in the 1980s,’ the DTI said.

At the launching of LTP Hangar 1A at the MacroAsia Special Economic Zone in Villamor Airbase, Pasay City in August 2022, LTP vice-president for marketing and sales Rainer Janke said the company
has reached the maximum capacity of its Metro Manila facility and needed to search for new locations for its expansion.

Janke then mentioned that the Clark Special Economic Zone is ‘very attractive’ for LTP’s next investment.

Moreover, the DTI mentioned that LTP will be leasing 2 hectares of land in Clark for the new hangar that can accommodate at least two Airbus A380 aircraft.

The construction of its second hangar will span for two years, the DTI said.

The new project is expected to employ an additional 400 workers, it added.

‘(T)he expansion plan of LTP will also provide high-quality and better-paying jobs to Filipinos while strengthening the aerospace MRO (maintenance, repair, and overhaul) capabilities of the country,’ the trade department said.

In a Viber message, the DTI said the PHP8-billion investment in Clark is part of the first phase of its expansion in the country.

‘The company shared the possibility of a Phase 2 expansion, either in Clark or at new airport sites in Bulacan or Sangley Poin
t,’ the DTI added.

To recall, Lutter said in October last year that the company is eyeing a PHP15-billion investment to build additional hangars in Clark but this has yet to be approved by Lufthansa’s bosses.

Meanwhile, LTP is looking into tapping the Maharlika Investment Corp. to fund the project. LTP executives are set to meet Maharlika Fund president and CEO Rafael Consing Jr., the DTI said.

Aside from the expansion of its MRO operations in the country, Pascual said Lufthansa also considers Manila as the next destination for its direct flights between Europe and Southeast Asia.

‘It does not only open opportunities for tourism but also for other business services of Lufthansa that the Philippines can support,’ Pascual said.

Source: Philippines News Agency

WASHINGTON: A state judge in Georgia allowed a racketeering case against former President Donald Trump to move forward Wednesday but threw out six of 41 election-related charges against the former commander-in-chief.

In a nine-page order, Fulton County Superior Court Judge Scott McAfee said the six charges against Trump and five of his co-defendants lacked sufficient detail.

The charges are related to alleged efforts to have officials violate their oaths of office to overturn state election results.

McAfee said the lack of detail in the indictment does not allow Trump’s attorneys “to prepare their defenses intelligently,” because the defendants could have violated the law “in dozens, if not hundreds, of distinct ways.”

“The Court’s concern is less that the State has failed to allege sufficient conduct of the Defendants – in fact it has alleged an abundance. However, the lack of detail concerning an essential legal element is, in the undersigned’s opinion, fatal,” wrote McAfee.

“As written, these six coun
ts contain all the essential elements of the crimes but fail to allege sufficient detail regarding the nature of their commission, i.e., the underlying felony solicited,” he said. “This does not mean the entire indictment is dismissed.”

The judge granted prosecutors six months to resubmit the charges to a grand jury.

The case against Trump and 18 co-defendants centers on alleged efforts to overturn the state’s 2020 presidential election results.

Trump was indicted by a Georgia grand jury in August on 13 criminal counts, including violations of the state Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) Act, solicitation of violation of oath by a public officer, conspiracy to commit impersonating a public officer, and conspiracy to commit false statements.

McAfee threw out the solicitation charges.

Trump has been indicted four times in state and federal courts since he left office.

The charges range from hush money payments to an adult film star, efforts to overturn national election results, unlawfu
l retention of classified documents and efforts to prevent investigators from completing their duties.

Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis’ probe was sparked by a Jan. 2, 2021 telephone call Trump made to Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger in which he urged the senior state official to “find 11,780 votes’, the number he would have needed to win the battleground state.

A recording of the call was later leaked to the media.

The investigation went on to include a probe of fake local electors who attempted to certify fraudulent election results in Trump’s favor.

Source: Philippines News Agency

MANILA: Civil Service Commission (CSC) Chairperson Karlo Nograles has commended the commitment of public school teachers and other government employees who served as test administrators in the March 3 Career Service Exam – Pen and Paper Test (CSE-PPT).

‘Nais kong bigyan ng pagkilala at pasalamatan ang mga public school teachers at iba pang kawani ng pamahalaan mula sa iba’t-ibang ahensya para sa paglalaan ng oras at pagtulong para sa maayos na pagdaraos ng pagsusulit na nagbunga ng matagumpay na Career Service Examination (I want to recognize and thank the public school teachers and other government employees from various agencies for giving their time and support for the successful conduct of the CSE),’ Nograles said in a Tuesday news release.

Nograles, who inspected the actual examinations in Kalibo, Aklan, also thanked and congratulated all the examinees for their ‘cooperation and discipline.’

Of the 361,674 individuals who registered for the exam, 335,356 individuals or 92.72 percent showed up in 95 te
sting centers, with 297,955 individuals taking the CSE Professional Level and 37,401 for the Subprofessional Level.

Among the regions, the National Capital Region reported the biggest turnout of examinees at 54,467, followed by Regions 4 and 9 with 40,546 and 23,322 takers, respectively.

Other CSC officials also visited various testing centers to monitor the CSE-PPT and commended the examinees and test administrators nationwide.

The CSC aims to release the results of the March 3, 2024 CSE-PPT on May 12, 2024.

The second run of the CSE-PPT this year is scheduled on August 11, 2024, with the application period running from May 13 to June 13.

Source: Philippines News Agency

DARAGA: At first glance, eight-year-old Mattea Xaria Madrid Gonzales might seem like any ordinary kid.

As a Grade 3 student at Tabaco Northwest Central School in Albay, her usual routine often involves waking up early to attend her classes, playing with friends during break time, and mastering the day’s lessons in her tutoring sessions.

But when the clock strikes 6:00 in the evening, in time for her daily three-hour training, this dusky little achiever transforms into a young phenom the moment her lithe body meets the water’s surface.

Unbeknownst to many, Gonzales is a swimming prodigy who made waves in the Asian Open Swim Invitational Aquatic Championship in Bangkok, Thailand, last February.

Bagging two gold medals in the 4 x 50 freestyle relay and 4 x 50m medley relay and a bronze in the 50m freestyle event, she was able to prove that when it comes to making a resounding splash into the world of competitive swimming, success is not confined to age.

Young athlete

Gonzales’ affinity for the sport starte
d two years ago, a month after she turned six, when her parents — Stephanie, who works in a local bank, and Vicente Ernesto, a dog breeder — enrolled her in swimming classes.

Given the family’s fondness for water adventures, the couple initially planned to let their only child learn the basics of swimming to teach her about aquatic safety.

But this young tanker showed exceptional talent, catching the eye of Tabak Yellowfins Swim Club coach Vin Astro Cardiño, who could not help but marvel at her skill.

The swim coach revealed that in spite of his limited interaction with Gonzales, as this was during the time when the town of Tabaco was transitioning from general community quarantine to modified general community quarantine, he could see that she was special.

“Despite minimal physical guidance, she displayed confidence and grit while mastering the skills, especially in the deeper sections of the pool,” Cardiño said.

With her remarkable speed, agility, and mindset, it was easy for this prodigy to elevate
her learn-to-swim journey into the realms of competitive sports in a matter of years.

“What sets her apart from other kids her age is her dedication. She has the attitude of an athlete. During training sessions, she is really focused, limiting her time for play, which most kids rarely do, just to hone her skills,” the coach said.

Making a splash in the international lane

For her first international tilt in Thailand, the young sensation was the epitome of passion and commitment.

“I trained every day. Every Wednesday, I did dry training. I also ate nutritious food, maintained a balanced diet, ensured I got enough sleep, took my vitamins, and really prayed hard,” she said.

Considering the sacrifices the family had to make to support her international dreams, her mother said she couldn’t be more proud of her recent feat.

“Mattea is a very determined child, and she has always made it her goal to surpass her best time in all her swimming competitions,” the proud mom said.

Her swim coach could attest to the l
ove and dedication of the Gonzales family, who persevered despite the odds to prepare their daughter for the tilt.

“The financial strain was too much for the family since they had to pay for the pool entrance at a local resort given the lack of a standard competitive pool for our daily training in Tabaco or Albay,” Cardiño said.

While there were nearby facilities such as the 50-meter pool at Tabaco National High School and the Bicol University Olympic swimming pool in Albay, neither were operational during their training period.

Lamenting the lack of a suitable training pool, the young phenom’s mother appealed for greater support for athletes.

“I hope they prioritize the renovation of our standard swimming pools because this will be a great help to athletes such as Mattea,” she said.

Throughout her journey, Gonzales remained optimistic, keeping a cool composure that has put her in a league of her own.

“When I won, I felt really happy because this was my first international competition,” she said.

Asked
what advice she could give to swimmers her age, the young tanker underscored the need to believe in one’s self.

“Always trust and listen to your coach. Always keep your hopes up; you’ll never know what’s going to happen, and if you have a lane, you really have a chance,’ she said with a smile on her lips.

Source: Philippines News Agency