PH, JAPAN, US CONFIRM IMPORTANCE OF TAIWAN STRAIT PEACE

Japan, the United States and the Philippines agreed Friday on the importance of peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait, amid China's increasing military assertiveness there and other parts of the Indo-Pacific region.

The three countries also pledged to deepen their trilateral cooperation to "maintain and strengthen a free and open international order," in a joint press release issued after the first three-way talks in Tokyo among their security advisors.

Takeo Akiba, secretary general of Japan's National Security Secretariat, and his U.S. and Philippine counterparts, Jake Sullivan and Eduardo Ano, attended the meeting.

The gathering took place with tensions between Washington and Beijing mounting over issues such as Taiwan, a self-ruled democratic island that Communist-led China regards as a renegade province to be reunified with the mainland, by force if necessary.

China has been stepping up its military pressure on Taiwan, which has been governed independently since it split from China in 1949 following a civil war.

Based on bilateral U.S. security alliances with Japan and the Philippines, respectively, the three countries will work together and enhance their response capabilities "in order to maintain peace and stability in the Indo-Pacific region," the release said.

"A free and open maritime order, characterized by freedom of navigation, and a free, fair, and equitable economic order are essential," especially given "unilateral attempts to change the status quo by force or coercion," it added.

MAYON ASHFALL REACHES FOOT-SLOPE VILLAGES; EVACUEES SWELL TO 20,000

MANILA  — The Mayon Volcano in Albay, Philippines has been experiencing a silent effusion of fresh lava over the past three days, with the lava reaching up to two kilometers down the crater, according to the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology (Phivolcs). The largest pyroclastic density current (PDC) occurred on Thursday, lasting four minutes and depositing materials within a kilometer of the gullies. Phivolcs observed slow lava effusion from the summit crater, which has been feeding lava flows and causing collapse debris in the Mi-isi and Bonga gullies. The lava flows have advanced to about one kilometer from the summit crater, while the collapse debris has reached approximately two kilometers from the crater.

Phivolcs maintains Alert Level 3 for Mayon Volcano due to a relatively high level of unrest. Magma is present at the volcano's crater, and a hazardous eruption is possible within weeks or even days.

Phivolcs resident volcanologist, Paul Alanis, reported 12 additional dome-collapsed PDCs and 307 rockfall events in the past 24 hours. Traces of ashfall were reported in Sitio Buga in Ligao City and Purok 7 in Gunobatan, Albay. The monitoring instruments detected a total of 922 rockfall events triggered by sustained lava effusion over the past three days. Steam-laden plumes averaged 725 tons per day, while sulfur dioxide emissions averaged 509 in the past 48 hours.

Mayon Volcano's abnormal condition has been sustained for the past 72 hours, according to Phivolcs. Alanis noted that it is difficult to predict how long this quiet lava effusion will continue, as Mayon is a volcano with unpredictable behavior.

PHILIPPINES TO ROLL OUT BIVALENT COVID-19 VACCINES ON JUNE 21

MANILA — The Philippines will begin distributing bivalent COVID-19 vaccines to healthcare workers and senior citizens next week, the Department of Health said Friday.

The modified jabs will be launched through a ceremony at the Philippine Heart Center in Quezon City on June 21, which President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. will attend, the DOH said.

The Philippines received early this month some 390,000 doses of the adapted version of the original vaccine from Lithuania.

Those eligible for the first phase of bivalent vaccine rollout include healthcare workers and senior citizens who received their second booster shots at least 4 to 6 months ago.

The DOH urged eligible Filipinos to get inoculated with the bivalent vaccines, which are modified jabs that target both the original and omicron strains of the virus.

"Despite the decreasing trend of the COVID-19 positivity rate of 11.6 percent in the National Capital Region as of June 10, we still encourage all eligible individuals to get vaccinated as the threat of infection still continues," Health Secretary Teodoro Herbosa said in a statement.

MUNTINLUPA JUDGE INHIBITS FROM DE LIMA’S DRUG CASE

MANILA — A Muntinlupa judge who is handling the remaining drug case of detained former Senator Leila de Lima has inhibited himself from the case.

In a 7-page order dated June 15, Thursday, Judge Romeo Buenaventura granted the motions for inhibition filed by De Lima’s co-accused Ronnie Dayan, Joenel Sanchez and Franklin Bucayu.

“[T]he undersigned Presiding Judge will exercise his discretion and will recuse himself from further hearing this case not because the allegations are true, but because it is his avowed duty as member of the Bench to promote confidence in the judicial system,” he said.

Dayan, Sanchez and Bucayu had asked for Buenaventura's inhibition after learning that his brother, Atty. Emmanuel Buenaventura, assisted Dayan in executing an affidavit back in 2016, which Dayan later recanted.

They cited conflict of interest because Atty. Buenaventura worked for the late Rep. Reynaldo Umali, chair of the House Committee on Justice, which investigated De Lima's links to Bilibid drug trade.

In his order, Judge Buenaventura said his ties with his brother was not sufficient to prove that he "acted with malice, bad faith, and partiality" in conducting hearings and in denying the bail petition of De Lima and the other accused.

He defended his bail ruling against Bucayu's claim that it was one-sided.

“[T]he Court exhaustively discussed the legal parameters on how to resolve the petitions and motions for bail and even emphasized that in finding that the evidence of guilt is strong, the Court does not in any way prejudge what the final outcome of the case will be as the strong evidence of guilt does not equate to a finding of proof of guilt beyond reasonable doubt,” he explained.

PBBM STAYS PUT AS DA CHIEF

President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. said Friday there are no takers for the job of leading the Department of Agriculture, and the people he asked to assume the post don’t want him to give up the reins.

Mr. Marcos, who has been sitting concurrently as Agriculture secretary since he assumed the presidency last year, joked that he has already asked people to volunteer for the post, but they said they did not want him to leave the department.

In receiving a sizable donation of urea fertilizer from China, the President repeated his promise of not stepping down from the DA until key structural changes are in place to ensure food security.

“I have asked many, I asked them, I am just waiting for someone to volunteer themselves to take the post as secretary, they don’t want me to leave,” Mr. Marcos said.

The President said the country has undergone a crisis in food supply and prices and said he wants to address these first, especially food production.

“At the beginning of this year, we had problems with food supply, prices, everything—and fertilizer prices,” he said in a mix of Filipino and English.

‘GOOD THINGS TAKE TIME’: SARA DUTERTE VOICES SUPPORT FOR SOGIE BILL

MANILA  — Vice President Sara Duterte has openly voiced her support for the passage of the Sexual Orientation, Gender Identity, Gender Expression, or Sex Characteristics (SOGIESC) Equality bill.

Speaking at the Office of the Vice President’s Pride Reception event on Thursday, Duterte said that she is among the many advocates in government backing the measure.

“While we wait patiently for the passage of the SOGIESC bill, what I would say on this is that good things take time. But we have advocates in the government, including me, in your dream for a law for protection,” Duterte said in a mix of English and Filipino.

In May, the House women and gender equality committee approved the consolidated bill that combined multiple similar measures aimed at eliminating discrimination based on SOGIESC.

This came after several hearings, during which evangelical groups, who were against the bill, and organizations in favor of the legislation engaged in discussions about the importance of safeguarding Filipinos from gender-based discrimination.

The Commission on Human Rights has recently called on Congress to pass the “long overdue” measure, multiple versions of which have stalled in the upper and lower chambers for at least 23 years.

During her speech, Duterte also acknowledged the presence of Rep. Geraldine Roman, who chairs the House women and gender equality commitee and among the co-authors of the proposed SOGIESC measure.

OVP SUPPORT FOR QUEER BUSINESS OWNERS

Vice President Sara Duterte called for public support for initiatives promoting gender equality and social empowerment, particularly through entrepreneurial collaboration and advancement across diverse socio-economic industries. She acknowledged the limited livelihood opportunities faced by the LGBTQIA+ sector and highlighted the specific challenges they encounter in sustaining and expanding their businesses, including discrimination and obstacles in accessing funds, licenses, sales, staffing, and insurance. Vice President Duterte also mentioned the "Mag Negosyo 'Ta Day" initiative of the Office of the Vice President, which aims to provide entrepreneurial programs for marginalized communities, including LGBTQIA+ individuals. The program seeks to support entrepreneurs in establishing sustainable businesses through training programs conducted in partnership with the Department of Trade and Industry and the Philippine Deposit Insurance Corp.

JINGGOY CITES RELEVANCE OF SEAFARERS’ MEASURE

Passage of the proposed Magna Carta of Filipino Seafarers has become timely and relevant in light of the near banning of Filipino seamen by European Union-flagged vessels, Sen. Jinggoy Estrada said on Friday.

Estrada said the measure will ensure the clear and coordinated fulfillment of mandates of the concerned government agencies.

This will also improve the services given by the government to Filipino seafarers and facilitate the proper implementation of the proposed law, Estrada said.

Estrada, chairman of of the Senate Committee on Labor, Employment, and Human Resource Development suggested that the passage of the Magna Carta for Filipino Seafarers was long overdue. Macon Ramos-Araneta 

Once enacted, it will be another landmark legislation that will benefit our kababayans – the seafarers and their families – and our economy as a whole, Estrada said.

He was the first to file a bill way back in 2013 to avert the crisis – the non-hiring of new Filipino seafarers in EU member-states and the displacement of around 50,000 currently deployed in the region,

This was due to the country’s repeated failure to pass the European Maritime Safety Agency (EMSA) evaluation since 2006.

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HOW FILIPINOS CAN ENTER CANADA VISA-FREE

MANILA  — This month, Filipinos are among the 12 nationalities who were allowed to enter Canada visa-free if they meet certain requirements.

The Canadian Embassy in the Philippines on June 7 announced the good news via a series of tweets.

Philippine travelers can enter through Canada's electronic travel authorization (eTA) program.

The program allows entry to Canada for Filipino citizens if they either 1.) held a Canadian visa in the last 10 years or 2.) currently hold a valid United States non-immigrant visa. When these have been met, Filipinos can travel Canada by air.

"Canada values our relationship with the Philippines. With the well-established Filipino diaspora in Canada, along with an increasing number of students and tourists from the Philippines, we recognize the importance of expanding and simplifying travel between our countries," said the embassy in a press statement.

According to the embassy, the eTA is "a digital travel document that most visa-exempt travellers need to travel to or transit through Canada by air."

It is an application used by Canadian officials to conduct "light-touch, pre-travel screening of air travellers."

The eTA costs $7 Canadian dollars (P295.27) to apply and most applications are automatically approved within minutes. Travelers need only a valid passport, a credit card, an email address and access to the Internet.

Apart from the Philippines, the visa-free entry to Canada were also extended to travelers from Antigua and Barbuda, Argentina, Costa Rica, Morocco, Panama, St. Kitts and Nevis, St. Lucia, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Seychelles, Thailand, Trinidad and Tobago and Uruguay.

Canada said it has issued 466,936 temporary resident visas to citizens from the Philippines in the last 10 years.

BOOSTING INTERNET CONNECTIVITY CRUCIAL FOR E-GOVERNMENT PUSH: GROUP

MANILA — Wider internet connectivity is crucial for the government's push to digitize its transactions, advocacy group Better Internet PH said.

"We keep on saying that we want digitalization, that we want e-government and we actually now have a super app. How can people access these apps, how can organizations, schools, businesses digitalize if they don’t have connectivity?" the group's lead advocate Grace Mirandilla-Santos said in a media seminar sponsored by the US Embassy in Manila.

Secure implementation of E-government also requires a national policy that will promote information security, which could come in the form of an executive order by the President Ferdinand Marcos Jr., she said.

"This way, the public can be confident that e-government services are safe and secure," Mirandilla-Santos said.

Government agencies this week agreed to expand the services of the eGov app that would standardize payment processing and speed up issuance of permits, among others.

In the initial stage, e-government has the potential to prevent petty graft and theft linked to tasks that do not involve discretion, such as submitting printed forms in person, Mirandilla-Santos said.

"However, if e-government is limited to these things, it's unlikely to stamp out big-time kickbacks from, say, rigged bids, bloated projects or the purchase of favors where government officials have discretion," she told ABS-CBN News.

"E-government can only go so far; it can't change our values overnight. That said, e-government must be initiated, developed, and expanded to cover more and more activities, until it becomes the norm. Once citizens get a taste of faster and more efficient services, there's no turning back."

WATER BOARD OKS 52CMS ALLOCATION FOR MWSS IN JUNE

The National Water Resources Board (NWRB) has approved the Metropolitan Waterworks and Sewerage System's (MWSS) request to maintain a higher water allocation of 52 cubic meters per second (cms) from June 16 to June 30. This decision contradicts expectations of a lower allocation of 50 cms to conserve water due to a potential El Niño. The MWSS expressed concern that reducing the water allocation from Angat Dam in Bulacan could result in service interruptions for many residents in Metro Manila.

Additionally, Albay Representative Joey Sarte Salceda thanked Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas Governor Felipe Medalla for clarifying that financing water and sanitation projects in rural communities qualifies for Agri-Agra Rural Credit funds under the country's banking system. Medalla assured Salceda that the clarification would be included in the frequently asked questions related to the implementation of RA 11901.

MERGER DOUBLES BID TO P210B FOR NAIA REHAB

A consortium of real estate developers called the Manila International Airport Consortium (MIAC) has increased its offer from P100 billion to P210 billion to rehabilitate and modernize the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) in the Philippines. The proposal aims to address the need for improvements in facilities, operating procedures, and technologies to provide a comfortable and efficient international gateway for passengers. The increased offer is based on new studies projecting a growth in flight traffic to approximately 55 million passengers annually. The multi-phased masterplan includes an initial investment of P56 billion over the first five years to upgrade facilities and introduce new technologies. The consortium is currently awaiting evaluation of the proposal, and if approved, implementation could begin later this year with improvements expected to be felt by next year.

In line with the airport authority's Schedule and Terminal Assignment Rationalization (STAR) program, Philippine Airlines (PAL) has started operating its international flights at NAIA Terminal 1, while domestic flights remain at NAIA Terminal 2. PAL advises passengers to arrive at the airport four hours before international departures and three hours before domestic flights to allow sufficient time for immigration and security checks.

As part of the STAR program, Air Asia Philippines, Royal Air Philippines, and Sunlight Air are scheduled to transfer their domestic flights to NAIA Terminal 2 and Terminal 4 on July 1, marking the final phase of the program.

SPORTS

39 PINOY ATHLETES QUALIFY FOR IRONMAN WORLDS

MANILA -- Jet Ramos and Alessandra Castaneda lead a pack of Filipino endurance racers in the World Championship in Nice, France and Kailua-Kona, Hawaii, respectively.

This, after their strong finishes in the Century Tuna IRONMAN Philippines in Subic last week.

Ramos and Castaneda emerged the top local performers in the third staging of the grueling 3.8km swim, 180km bike and 42km run race, which earned them a $1000 prize each as well as a ticket to the world stage.

Ramos, of Baguio Benguet Triathlon, timed 10:20:34 to finish fifth in the men’s side topped by Dutch Eric van der Linden. Castaneda, of Chery Auto PH Tri Team, clocked 12:17:46 to likewise post a fifth-place effort in her side of the event ruled by Japanese Chigusa Yamashita.

Twenty-five others will join Ramos in the men’s world tilt on Sept. 10 in Nice, France.

The other Filipinos to qualify in the men's world championships are: Alex Isip, Emmanuel Mondero, Jon Sunga, Mike Gonda, Elmer Santiago, Abe Tayag, Erwin Rommel Espinoza, Joffrey Ano, Paolo Leaño, Cyril Bermudo, Wayne Mark Elep, Raoul Franco Ramos, Conrad Legaspi, Kristoffer Crisostomo, Jaako Ramos, Karl Reformina, Ramoncito Gonzales, Renel Bricenio, Daniel Valdez, Eigen Rara, Ralph Bautista, JK Salcedo, Mervin Santiago, Jem Clemente and Reuven Alzaga.

Set to compete in Hawaii in the women's side are: Geraldine Abuan, Leilani Tan, Vanj Endaya, Melissa Racela, Nylah Bautista, Etta Mai Farrell, April Lañas, Joann Caralian, Maria Catleya Deveza, Chloe Jane Ong, Jennifer Tan Uy and Sarah Marie Eraña-Leaño.

The 39 local bets make up the record cast ever to see action in world triathlon championship, featuring the world’s top triathletes and leading age-group campaigners from all over.

INDICATORS

FOREX $1 = P 55.86

THOUGHT FOR THE DAY

There was a time when we expected nothing of our children but obedience, as opposed to the present, when we expect everything of them but obedience. - Anatole Broyard