MANILA, Philippines — Malacañang yesterday reminded the public that the identification cards for its service fairs are free and no payment is needed to access such events or to receive assistance from state a gencies.
In a Facebook post, the Presidential Communications Office (PCO) said the Bagong Pil ipinas Serbisyo Fair ID is not for sale.
“There is no entrance fee to the locations of the caravans because the activity is a national government program designed to benefit Filipinos,” the PCO said.
The PCO added that assistance given in the service fairs undergo validation by agencies and the government would not seek payment from the beneficiaries.
The PCO urged the public to be vigilant and to report any effort to demand payment in exchange for government aid.
The service caravans seek to deliver key g overnment services to underprivileged Filipinos nationwide.
MANILA, Phi lippines — A portion of Manila Bay along Roxas Boulevard will officially become off-limits to motorists every Sunday morning starting May 26.
Manila Mayor Honey Lacuna yesterday signed Ordinance No. 9047 to allow families to do physical activities and promote health lifestyles along the city’s busiest road.
Lacuna was joined by Vice Mayor Yul Servo, Secretary to the Mayor Marlon Lacson and District 6 Councilor Salvador Philip Lacuna, who authored the ordinance, during the signing.
Under the measure, both directions of Roxas Boulevard from Padre Burgos Avenue, near Rizal Park, to Quirino Avenue will become exclusive for walking, jogging, running and cycling from 5 to 9 a.m. every Sunday.
Lacuna said people would “experience a different perspective of Roxas Boulevard,” which she described as a “significant part of the country’s history, culture and politics.”
“They will have more time to appreciate its beauty and significance while walking, jogging, running and biking,” she said.
Lacuna said the initiative seeks to motivate people to exercise, promote the beauty of Manila Bay and support the continuing order of the Supreme Court for a healthy Manila Bay.
She ordered concerned city hall offices to make sure that the road, sidewalk, bay walk and connecting roads are cleared of hazards and garbage.
According to the Manila Traffic and Parking Bureau, the car-free Sundays will be implemented until June 30.
Will anomalies never end in the Bureau of Immigration? On Nov. 9, 2020 while the COVID pandemic was raging with no vaccine available, Rodrigo Duterte summoned over 40 BI employees to Malacañang to berate them over the so-called pastillas scam. This referred to the anomalous entry of foreigners mostly from China who ended up working in Philippine offshore gaming operator or POGO firms. The cash payments for facilitating the entry were reportedly handed over to BI personnel in rolled-up bundles resembling pastillas or local milk pastry.
Duterte did not carry out his threat to make the BI employees eat paper rolled up like pastillas, which supposedly contained cash. The BI employees were already suspended at the time over the scam. In June 2022, the Office of the Ombudsman dismissed 45 of them from the service.
You’d think BI personnel would have learned their lesson from that scandal. Yet here we are again, with the House of Representatives investigating reports that unscrupulous BI personnel are abusing for a fee the bureau’s authority to convert tourist visas into student visas.
The authority is given to the BI under Executive Order 285, issued in 2000 during the presidency of Joseph Estrada. EO 285 also created an inter-agency committee on foreign students, chaired by the Commission on Higher Education. The committee members are the Department of Foreign Affairs, Department of Education, National Bureau of Investigation and National Intelligence Coordinating Agency.
With questions raised about a reported influx of Chinese students in Cagayan, a House committee has learned that in 2023, the BI granted student visas to 16,200 Chinese nationals. It’s unclear if most of the 16,200 initially entered the Philippines on tourist visas. But Surigao del Norte 2nd District Rep. Robert Ace Barbers is urging Malacañang to scrap EO 285, and to instead transfer to the DFA the authority to convert tourist visas to student visas.
Barbers has acknowledged that under normal circumstances, the influx of foreign students should not be a problem, but the country’s dispute with China over maritime issues as well as peace and order problems associated with POGOs give a national security dimension to the entry of Chinese citizens. The DFA itself is tightening visa requirements for Chinese nationals. Possible corruption in the BI is another reason to tighten and streamline visa rules.
US President Joe Biden drew flak from all sides for suspending shipment of munitions to Israel as a way of showing displeasure over Tel Aviv’s decision to proceed with its ground operations at Rafah, Gaza’s southernmost city.
The decision was condemned as abandonment of a key ally in the midst of a war. It was also derided as reinforcing perception that the US was an unreliable ally – putting its convenience first or responding to the vagaries of domestic politics.
This being a presidential election year featuring a close rematch between Biden and Donald Trump, every policy decision by the chief executive is bound to be processed through the prism of party positioning. Trump seized on the opportunity to play for Jewish votes by roundly decrying his rival’s decision as abandonment of an ally – even as he previously announced he would not support America’s NATO allies facing an aggressive Russia.
Biden’s suspension of weapons delivery happens after House Republicans held up military aid packages to Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan by many months to score points against the Democrats. Ukraine, currently falling back from several positions in the face of a Russian offensive, might have performed better if weapons were delivered more promptly.
Biden justifies his position by saying that he did not want US bombs killing more civilians in the devastated territory. That sounds rather glib. Israeli forces have destroyed much of Gaza over the past months using US-supplied weapons. Rafah is the last enclave where Hamas still operates as an organized force.
Clearly, Biden was responding to anti-Israel campus protests the past few weeks. The protests enjoyed the support of left-wing Democratic Party stalwarts. Biden also needs to shore up electoral support from younger voters, exemplified by the students organizing anti-Israel encampments.
But the broad backlash to the suspension of arms delivery could force Biden to reconsider in the light of new developments in the war. This seems to be Biden’s operational code.
Recall that Biden opposed sending longer range missiles to Ukraine, fearing they would be used to attack Russian territory and widen the conflict, including Russian use of tactical nuclear weapons. Biden later on agreed to send these missiles after Kiev kept begging for them.
Biden also earlier opposed sending F-16 fighter planes and Abrams main battle tanks to Ukraine on the same cautious calculations. The US is now supplying Kiev with both weapons.
Biden initially opposed sending Patriot defense systems to Ukraine but later yielded when Russia sent its missiles raining down on Ukrainian cities. The Patriot systems are now deployed in Ukraine’s defense.
When Ukraine developed its own powerful drones and began attacking Russian oil facilities, the Biden administration called on Kiev to avoid doing so for fear of pushing up oil prices. Washington has since toned down on this subject.
The waffling seems characteristically Biden: a risk-averse politician. As vice president to Barack Obama, Biden opposed the daring raid on the Islamabad hideout of Osama Bin Laden. Obama carried out the attack anyway, notwithstanding objections from his vice president. The risky operation resulted in the killing of the terrorist chief.
Biden has been on Netanyahu’s back since Israel decided to mount a military offensive to clear Gaza of Hamas. The offensive against a densely populated territory would inevitably incur collateral damage. But not doing this military operation would mean that Hamas will continue to threaten Israel’s population long into the future.
At every turn, over the past six months, Washington tried to rein in Netanyahu. The right-wing Israeli leader has proven to be a stubborn and independent customer, to Biden’s exasperation. When the suspension of deliveries was announced last week, the Israeli leader said his country will fight with their fingernails if necessary. That reaction should embarrass Biden.
From Netanhayu’s point of view, the war against Hamas simply cannot be left half-done. Otherwise, the terrorist group will simply regenerate and continue to threaten Israel for generations to come.
Rafah, Gaza’s entry point to Egypt, is particularly important for Hamas. For as long as they control this city, they will control the aid flow to the starving population they want to keep under their tight grip.
Hamas raises resources not only from their control of aid flow. The terrorist group also collects up to $5,000 from every Gazan seeking to escape into Egypt. The last operational Hamas regiments are in Rafah.
Because of all these reasons, it is highly unlikely that Tel Aviv will bow down to Biden’s pressure. The ground operation in Rafah will continue to creep until all the Hamas tunnels in the city is blown up.
Biden’s decision to suspend arms shipments to an ally in the midst of a war poses broader reputation risks for the US. America’s NATO allies, wary of the crazy twists and turns of current US domestic politics, are hurrying on their own rearmament.
Here in Manila, voices that oppose our country’s sharp pro-US pivot cite all those instances when America waffled when her allies needed her support most. These dissenting voices claim that the US is pushing us to war as her proxy even as America has proven to be a waffling ally.
Biden’s suspension of weapons deliveries to Israel provides anti-American voices in the Philippines and elsewhere more grist. The worst scenario involves the US reneging on her mutual defense treaty obligations after pushing us to war.