KAKAMMPI News

By Bombo Reymund Tinaza -March 26, 2021 | 1:55 PM105 Pinayagan na ng Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of the Emerging Infectious Diseasesd (IATF) na magkaroon ng religious gatherings isang beses kada araw mula Abril 1 hanggang 4 o sa Semana Santa. Sinabi ni Presidential Spokesman Harry Roque, hanggang 10 porsyento lamang ang seating capacity sa loob ng mga simbahan. “Mabuting balita po para sa gustong magsimba ngayong Semana Santa, pinayagan po ng inyong IATF ang once a day religious gatherings mula a-uno hanggang a-kwatro ng Abril,” ani Sec. Roque. Ayon kay Sec. Roque, kailangan sumunod sa mga minimum health protocols laban COVID-19 ang mga magsisimba. “Dahil dito ang mga religious denominations ay kinakailangan sundin at ipatupad ang mga sumusunod na karagdagang mga controls bukod pa sa mga dating nilang ginagawang hakbang bilang pag-iingat sa kumakalat na Covid-19 habang sila ay nagsasagawa ng kanilang mga religious services o activities,” dagdag ni Sec. Roque. Iniha...

Reuters Posted at Mar 26 2021 02:25 PM People cover with plastic in case of a water canon during a rally against the military coup and to demand the release of elected leader Aung San Suu Kyi, in Yangon, Myanmar, on February 9, 2021. Stringer, Reuters Myanmar anti-coup protesters staged more rallies on Friday after the military reportedly shot dead nine people a day earlier and as the World Bank warned the country's economy could slump 10% this year due to the turmoil. In a bid to increase pressure on the junta over the February 1 coup, the United States and Britain imposed sanctions on conglomerates controlled by the military, with Washington calling it a response to the military's "brutal repression". Candle-lit protests took place across the country overnight including in the Mandalay and Sagaing regions, as well as in Karen and Chin states, media reports said In Myanmar's second city of Mandalay, protesters marched on Friday morning in front of a "c...

Rudy Santos (The Philippine Star ) - March 15, 2021 - 12:00am MANILA, Philippines — Saudi Arabia is abolishing the kafala sponsorship system, giving all foreign workers, especially overseas Filipino workers (OFWs), the freedom to enter and exit the country without seeking an employer’s permission. Saudi Arabia’s Ministry of Human Resources and Social Development announced in November last year that it would implement this month new conditions under which expatriate workers in the Kingdom can benefit, with the aim of improving the kafala sponsorship system in the Kingdom. Recruitment and migration expert Manny Geslani said from now on, OFWs can ask to change employers, leave the country upon the expiration of their contracts and be allowed more liberal conditions from their employers. This is especially applicable to Filipino household service workers who are prone to having abusive employers, since the kafala was considered a form of slavery, according to the United Nations.

By JAMIL SANTOS, GMA News Published March 24, 2021 4:35pm Israel and the United Arab Emirates have agreed to vaccinate overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) for deployment in their countries, the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA) said on Wednesday. POEA administrator Bernard Olalia said their agency has recently approved the deployment of more than 400 caregivers, who are currently undergoing their interviews. "Napapayag po natin ang bansang Israel na isama sa vaccination program 'yung ating caregivers pagdating nila sa kanilang workplaces," he said at the V-Cafe @ DOLE briefing, adding that Filipino nurses will be included as well. (Israel has agreed to include in their vaccination program our caregivers when they arrive at their workplaces.) A number of Filipino household service workers (HSWs), meanwhile, are also set to be deployed at UAE. "Pumayag din po ang UAE government na isama sa vaccination program 'yung mga OFWs natin (The UAE g...

Presidential Adviser for Entrepreneurship and Go Negosyo Founder, Joey Concepcion March 24, 2021 - Folllowing the confusion circulating regarding the private sector access to vaccines, Presidential Adviser for Entrepreneurship and Go Negosyo Founder, Joey Concepcion, highlighted that the government was instrumental in making it possible for the private sector to acquire vaccines for its employees and economic frontliners. "When the AstraZeneca vaccines were made available around October to November, we had talks with AstraZeneca on how we can procure the vaccines for our employees and our government frontline workers. Knowing their non-profit program for the year 2020-2021, we told AstraZeneca that given the world’s limited supply, we would want to share and extend half of our orders for the government’s frontline workers,” Concepcion forwarded. Under the Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) status of all the vaccines around the world, vaccines can only be procured by the gov...

Shay Cullen The International Day of Forest is today, 21 March. Forests are of vital importance to the well-being of all creatures, the natural world and especially humankind. They absorb most of the damaging CO2 that causes climate change. Their protection and restoration should be of highest national priority of each nation to hold back global warming from rising above 1.5 degrees celsius and avert the catastrophe that is to come. Forests are vital for retaining and releasing water the whole year-round, preventing draught and providing clean water and protection from landslides and soil erosion in the typhoon season. In the Philippines and other nations that have suffered deforestation, there is severe low crop yield that causes food insecurity due to massive rains and typhoons because of soil erosion. In some provinces, 50 percent of the rich topsoil has been washed away and more to come. There are no more forests to hold the water back. The Philippines, once self-sufficient i...

Published March 17, 2021 6:02pm The Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA) has suspended the license of the manning agency of around ten seafarers who were abandoned by their employer in Fiji, one of its officials said Wednesday. In a live briefing, POEA administrator Bernard Olalia said the POEA checked if the Able Maritime Agency conducted significant efforts to help the seafarers. “[N]akita po namin na nagkulang ‘yung manning agency sa pag-monitor sa ating mga seafarers kaya po agad-agad po tayong nag-impose ng disciplinary action which led to the documentary suspension of the license of the manning agency,” he said. (We saw that the manning agency was lacking in its efforts to monitor our seafarers so we immediately imposed disciplinary action, which led to the disciplinary suspension of the license of the manning agency.) Olalia added that the employer has also been disallowed from hiring and recruiting seafarers. “They failed to give an update, significant r...

Published March 12, 2021 9:45pm Fed up with the abuse, an overseas Filipino worker (OFW) in Saudi Arabia was able to secretly record how she was assaulted by her employer. According to JP Soriano’s report on “24 Oras,” the video showed Ara, not her real name, being silent even as she was repeatedly slapped and hit with a broom or deck brush. “Malakas ho, nagluluto ako noon, eh, nung time na ‘yun. Tapos hindi ko akalain na kukuha pa ho siya ng walis. Tapos nung hinampas niya sa likod ko kaya hindi ako lumaban,” Ara said. (The blows were forceful. I was cooking at that time. I didn’t expect him to get a broom. And then he hit me from behind so I didn’t fight back.) Once she got the chance, Ara uploaded the video on social media. “At balak niyang pla-plantsahin ‘yung time na ‘yun. Naka-prepare na ‘yung plantsa. Tapos hindi natuloy ‘yun kasi bigla tumawag ‘yung amo ko lalaki sabi niya, uuwi na kayo kasi doon na tayo magaano sa bahay,” she said. (She was planning to use the iron. ...

Published March 18, 2021 9:53am Senator Joel Villanueva on Thursday urged the government to reconsider its ban on returning Filipinos, saying their extended stay overseas only puts them and their families in a difficult situation. "Every Filipino who had lost his job, on his last money, and had last seen his family years ago, is a kababayan in distress. Huwag po natin antaying magkalkal sila ng mga basura para makakain o mamalimos sa tabi-tabi,” Villanueva said in a statement. (Let's not wait for them to rummage through garbage for food or seek alms on the street.) Villanueva added the government should not allow the number of overseas Filipinos waiting for a flight home to increase since their savings and investments might run out. Villanueva chairs the Senate labor committee. The NTF also directed concerned agencies to limit the number of inbound international passengers to 1,500 a day. The said measures were meant to prevent a further rise in COVID-19 as well as ...

Published March 8, 2021 3:49pm By ERWIN COLCOL, GMA News Senate Minority Leader Franklin Drilon on Monday insisted that the proposed creation of the Department of Overseas Filipino Workers (OFWs) will not address the issues currently being faced by Filipino migrant workers. advertisement Drilon made the remark as the Senate labor committee deliberated on the various measures proposing the creation of the OFW department, which is among the priority legislation of President Rodrigo Duterte. In his interpellation, Drilon zeroed in on the "kafala" system in the Middle East. The said system requires employers to sponsor foreign workers, making the latter vulnerable to abuse. Under it, foreign workers can only look for new jobs without prior approval from their sponsors after three years of service. "The culture of kafala is something that is embedded in their culture so that your theory is that no form of bilateral agreement or Philippine domestic laws can achieve full p...

Michael Erman, Reuters Posted at Mar 09 2021 07:07 AM A vial of the Pfizer vaccine against the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) used at The Reservoir nursing facility is shown in West Hartford, Connecticut, US, on December 18, 2020. Stephen Dunn/Pool via Reuters/file NEW YORK - The COVID-19 vaccine from Pfizer Inc and BioNTech SE was able to neutralize a new variant of the coronavirus spreading rapidly in Brazil, according to a laboratory study published in the New England Journal of Medicine on Monday. Blood taken from people who had been given the vaccine neutralized an engineered version of the virus that contained the same mutations carried on the spike portion of the highly contagious P.1 variant first identified in Brazil, the study conducted by scientists from the companies and the University of Texas Medical Branch found. The scientists said the neutralizing ability was roughly equivalent the vaccine's effect on a previous less contagious version of the virus from last ...

Agence France-Presse Posted at Mar 09 2021 11:32 AM WASHINGTON - People who have been fully vaccinated against Covid-19 can gather indoors unmasked with others who have been vaccinated, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said in new guidance Monday. Those who are fully vaccinated can also visit with unvaccinated people from one other household indoors without masks or distancing so long as the unvaccinated people are not at high risk for severe Covid-19, added CDC Director Rochelle Walensky. Fully-vaccinated people who come into contact with someone who has Covid-19 also won't need to take a test or quarantine unless they show symptoms -- unless they live in a congregate setting like a nursing home or correctional facility. The recommendations came as US states were moving to reopen schools and businesses amid a drop in cases. Some 59 million Americans have now received one or more vaccine doses -- about 23 percent of the adult population -- and the immunizatio...

(Agence France-Presse) - March 2, 2021 - 8:47pm WASHINGTON, United States — Insults, beatings, arrests – health workers battling the coronavirus were subjected to more than 400 acts of violence related to COVID-19 worldwide in 2020, according to a report published Tuesday by a health NGO. The Safeguarding Health in Conflict Coalition unveiled an interactive map that shows 1,172 violent acts and attacks occurred against health workers or facilities last year, "a minimum estimate," according to the NGO. More than a third (412) of the acts are directly related to COVID-19, it said, citing several examples including in Mexico, where a nurse was attacked and injured by a group accusing her of spreading the virus. In Dakar, three social workers had stones hurled at them by residents who refused to have a coronavirus victim buried near their homes. In Birmingham, England, a health worker was spat at and insulted by a neighbor. The vast majority, 80 percent, of the perpetrators...

(Philstar.com) - March 3, 2021 - MANILA, Philippines — The government is targeting to distribute 600,000 doses of the Sinovac Biotech vaccine to different hospitals nationwide within the first week of March, the country’s vaccine czar said Wednesday. The country began vaccinations against COVID-19 Monday, just a day after it received donated jabs from China. So far, some 2,793 individuals got inoculated with CoronaVac in the 11 hospitals where the jabs were first deployed, Carlito Galvez Jr. said in an interview on ANC’s Headstart. Related Stories LIVE updates: COVID-19 in the Philippines 2021 “Our target for the end of the week is to deploy almost 600,000… Our target for this week is to dispatch and distribute all doses to different regions,” Galvez said. CoronaVac doses arrived in Cebu City and Davao City Tuesday, with the rollouts there expected to begin today. The initial allocation set was for 202,182 individuals in Luzon, 51,140 for Visayas and 94,540 for Mindanao, Galvez sa...

Robert Delaney, South China Morning Post Posted at Mar 03 2021 01:40 PM One of America’s most prominent national security advisers told lawmakers on Tuesday that Washington does not need to change its “strategic ambiguity” policy towards Taiwan to a more explicit defence guarantee, while also calling for a larger military presence in the region to counter Beijing’s operations there more aggressively. H.R. McMaster, the retired three-star Army general who served as an national security adviser to former president Donald Trump, testified in a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing that he disagreed with an assessment by Richard Haass, the president of the Council on Foreign Relations, and some other policy analysts that a change to “strategic clarity” with regard to the self-governing island was needed. “Strategic ambiguity is adequate, especially after we‘ve made public the six assurances to Taiwan, and I think if we act in the way that the Trump administration has acted, and the n...

Nandita Bose and Andrea Shalal, Reuters Posted at Mar 03 2021 12:58 PM WASHINGTON - President Joe Biden on Tuesday called on U.S. states to prioritize COVID-19 vaccinations for teachers to ensure children could return to school quickly and safely, and said every educator should receive at least one shot by the end of March. Biden also announced that Merck & Co Inc would help make rival Johnson & Johnson's single-shot COVID-19 vaccine, a partnership similar to those seen during World War Two. With three vaccines now available, Biden said he was confident there would be enough vaccines available for each adult in the United States by the end of May. The Democratic president said he was upbeat about reaching his goal of delivering 100 million COVID-19 vaccine doses in his first 100 days in office, but urged Americans to remain vigilant in wearing masks and observing social distancing. "Today's announcements are a huge step in our effort to beat this pandemic,...

Mohamad Ali Harissi, Agence France-Presse Posted at Mar 03 2021 02:42 AM People carry foodstuff aid they received from the local charity Mona Relief at a camp for internally displaced people on the outskirts of Sanaa, Yemen March 1, 2021. Khaled Abdullah, Reuters DUBAI - Famine could become part of war-torn Yemen's "reality" in 2021, the UN warned Tuesday, after a donor conference raising funds to keep millions from starvation fell short by over half. The United Nations had sought Monday to raise $3.85 billion from more than 100 governments and donors, but only $1.7 billion was offered. "The prospect of more people suffering a famine has just grown exponentially," UN Development Program chief Achim Steiner told AFP on Tuesday. Tens of thousands of people have been killed in the six-year-old war, which pits the Iran-backed Houthi rebels against an internationally recognized government supported by a Saudi-led military coalition. As fierce battles continue ...

Minnie Chan, South China Morning Post Posted at Mar 03 2021 05:11 AM China has no plans to forge a military alliance with Russia, the defence ministry said on Monday, responding to speculation that Beijing and Moscow could develop a united front against Nato. “China-Russia military relations are ... an important supporting force in strategic cooperation between the two countries,” the ministry said. “The two sides adhere to the principle of non-alignment, non-confrontation and non-targeting of third countries, which differs completely from the military alliance between some countries.” The statement comes after Russian President Vladimir Putin said in October that Moscow would not “rule out” a possible alliance with China. It was the first time a Russian leader had made such a suggestion since the pact between the two countries collapsed in acrimony in the 1960s, and prompted suggestions that Russia might try to establish a military alliance with China to counter the North Atlant...

ABS-CBN News Posted at Mar 02 2021 11:55 PM | Updated as of Mar 03 2021 01:16 AM MANILA (UPDATED) - The Philippine government has called for the release of Myanmar's detained leader Aung San Suu Kyi and a "complete return to the previously existing state of affairs” in the country. The Philippine statement was delivered by Foreign Affairs Secretary Teodoro Locsin, Jr. during the virtual informal meeting held by ASEAN foreign ministers on Myanmar following the coup d’etat that turned the country upside down. Locsin cited the “unifying role of Daw Aung San Suu Kyi in her country’s history and in its destiny” while recognizing the role of Myanmar’s Army’s “in preserving Myanmar’s territorial integrity and national security.” "We have always stood by Myanmar’s side as it tried to fix its ethnic challenges; the worst ones clear legacies of reckless and opportunistic Western imperialism. We have stood by Daw Aung San Suu Kyi in particular; and defended her against calumni...

Reuters Posted at Mar 03 2021 08:33 AM BRASILIA - Brazilian state governors scrambling to secure COVID-19 vaccines said on Tuesday they are getting together to bypass President Jair Bolsonaro's government and buy shots directly because of delays in the federal inoculation program. Half of Brazil's 26 governors visited pharmaceutical company União Quimica in Brasilia, which will produce Russia's Sputnik V COVID-19 vaccine. São Paulo's government said it will buy 20 million doses. Sputnik V would have to be authorized for emergency use by Brazil's health regulator Anvisa before the doses can be used. Piauí Governor Wellington Dias said they hope Anvisa can authorize emergency use by next week, but União Quimica's top executive said in an interview that the company is still filing paperwork. Brazilian states, facing a resurgence of COVID-19 cases that are overburdening their hospital wards, are frustrated with the Bolsonaro administration's failure to sec...

Australia extends pandemic border closure by three months Agence France-Presse Posted at Mar 03 2021 08:35 AM Photo by Joey Csunyo on Unsplash SYDNEY - Australia will extend its year-long international border closure by at least three months to mid-June, continuing the country's self-imposed isolation to keep the coronavirus at bay. Health Minister Greg Hunt said health officials had advised the government "the Covid-19 situation overseas continues to pose an unacceptable public health risk to Australia, including the emergence of more highly transmissible variants". As a result, strict border controls will continue until June 17, he said Tuesday. Caps were also imposed on the number of Australians permitted to return each week, leaving tens of thousands stranded overseas. Travelers allowed into the country must spend thousands of dollars to complete 14 days in hotel quarantine on arrival. Australia has been relatively successful in containing the spread of Covid...

Published February 19, 2021 8:27pm Filipino talent truly knows no bounds—it even transcends outer space! On Friday, the US Embassy in the Philippines shared that Filipino-American engineer Gregorio Villar was among the individuals behind the successful landing of NASA’s Perseverance rover on Mars. Gregorio is the entry, descent and landing systems engineer of the Mars 2020 mission. According to his NASA profile, Gregorio studied high school in Baguio City before moving to the US where he finished a degree in Physics and went on to get a master’s degree in astronautical engineering at University of Southern California. He has been part of NASA’s jet propulsion laboratory team for over 12 years now and spent over 7.5 years building and testing a system that will help land a car-sized rover on Mars. The engineer has also directed a Mars parachute test campaign at the world’s largest wind tunnel. As a kid who grew up dreaming of becoming an astronaut, Gregorio shared that what ma...

By LLANESCA T. PANTI, GMA News Dismissed Philippine Ambassador to Brazil Marichu Mauro has been perpetually banned from public office and will not receive retirement benefits as a result of her committing physical abuse against her household help, presidential spokesperson Harry Roque said. advertisement Roque made the announcement less than 24 hours after President Rodrigo Duterte announced Mauro’s dismissal. “Bukod po sa pagkasibak, forfeited ang kanyang mga retirement benefits, at hinding hindi na sya makakabalik sa serbisyo sa gobyerno,” Roque said in a Palace briefing. “Iyan ang kanyang parusa sa pagmamalupit sa kanyang kasambahay,” Roque added. Mauro’s physical abuse of her household help, who is also a Filipino, was caught on a video that has since gone viral. Mauro is facing charges after being caught on video hurting her helper. In his nationally-televised address, Duterte said Mauro’s eligibility will be cancelled and he will no longer receive retirement benefits...

By TED CORDERO, GMA News The Philippines and the United Arab Emirates on Tuesday signed a “historic” labor agreement which gives greater protection to Filipino household service workers (HSWs), according to the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE). In a statement, the DOLE said that both countries agreed, at the conclusion of the two-day joint committee meeting (JCM), to resume the deployment of HSWs to UAE, effective March 31, 2021. The deployment of HSWs to UAE has been suspended since 2014. The Philippine delegation head at the JCM Labor Undersecretary Claro Arellano said the new deployment scheme will now be covered by a Unified Employment Contract that provides stringent measures to protect Filipino HSWs pursuant to the directives of President Rodrigo Duterte. Under the unified contract, both the employer and the Foreign Recruitment Agencies, and the Philippine Recruitment Agencies are bound by joint and solidary liability should anything happen to the Filipino workers....

Five months into her new maid's employment, a woman began abusing the domestic helper from Myanmar, punching and stamping on her and starving her until she was only 24kg. In the days before the 24-year-old victim died of brain injury with severe blunt trauma to her neck, she was starved and tied to a window grille at night and assaulted if she tried to rummage for food from the dustbin. Gaiyathiri Murugayan, 40, pleaded guilty on Tuesday (Feb 23) to 28 charges including culpable homicide, voluntarily causing grievous hurt by starvation, voluntarily causing hurt by a heated substance and wrongful restraint. Another 87 charges will be considered in sentencing. The prosecution is seeking life imprisonment - but the judge adjourned sentencing to a later date as he considers the case. SHE CAME TO SINGAPORE FOR HER FIRST OVERSEAS JOB The court heard that the victim, Myanmar national Piang Ngaih Don, came to Singapore to work for Gaiyathiri in May 2015 in what was her first job ove...

Shay Cullen 26 February 2021 One of the most famous and committed protectors of the natural world and defender of the planet is David Attenborough. He gave a speech online to the UN members of the Security Council on climate change and security this week. Climate change is disrupting our world and the temperature has risen one degree centigrade and it will not go back. There is no going back, he said. We have reached a point of no return and that is a security risk to the planet and to every nation. We can stop it rising higher. One of the grave security risks is the increase in number and severity of natural disasters that is turning millions of people into victims of draughts where rice fields are turning to deserts in one part of the world and becoming permanent lakes in others. The devastating fires around the world have driven thousands from their homes and killed millions of animals. Wildlife is fast disappearing. Many people are so complacent to see birds flying and fish sw...