Good day. Here are the stories for The Manila Times for Friday, February 16, 2024.
Today's episode is brought to you by Wilcon Depot, The Philippines' leading home improvement and construction supplies retailer—your Trusted Building Partner.
READ: New tack vs China's 'bullying' hailed
Ray Powell, a United States-based maritime defense analyst told The Manila Times that "assertive tranparency," the Philippines' new strategy for countering China's aggressive actions in the West Philippine Sea, is working. Assertive transparency involves the use of photographs and videos to expose and document illegal incursions and incidents of harassment and intimidation at sea. Powell said what the Philippines has done with this tactic in the past year is "revolutionary." The strategy helped bring to international attention the Feb. 6, 2023 incident at Ayungin Shoal in the West Philippine Sea, when a China Coast Guard ship used a military-grade laser to drive
away a Philippine Coast Guard
(PCG) vessel.
READ: House bill seeks to grant workers heartbreak leave
A BILL has been filed in the House of Representatives seeking to grant heartbreak leaves to government and private sector workers. Cagayan de Oro City 1st District Rep. Lordan Suan filed House Bill 9931 on Wednesday, Valentine's Day.
READ: Zubiri urges House to pass wage hike bill
SENATE President Juan Miguel "Migz" Zubiri appealed to members of the House of Representatives to pass the counterpart of the wage hike bill. The Senate on Wednesday passed on second reading Senate Bill 2534 or the 100-peso Wage Hike Bill.
READ: 'Asia-Pacific to fall short of devt targets'
THE Asia-Pacific region will not meet any of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals by 2030, the Economic and Social
Commission for Asia and the Pacific said on Thursday. In its Asia and the Pacific S.D.G. Progress Report 2024, Escap said it would be challenging for the region to meet the deadline before 2062, at least 32 years behind schedule. The region will achieve only a third of the goals by 2030, and it will take an extraordinary collective effort to attain even this target.
READ: PH contests anti-doping body's claim
THE Philippine Sports Commission disputed allegations by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) that it
failed to comply with WADA rules. WADA announced on its website last Wednesday that it received a formal notification from the Philippine National Anti-Doping Organization (PHI-NADO), challenging the ruling that the P.S.C. did not comply with the anti-doping code. The agency had called on the commission "to comply with the code on developing and implementing effective, intelligent and proportionate
Test Distribution Plan and include all Registered Testing Pool athletes from sports or disciplines, among others."
SPORTS: Faster, braver Ybañez in UAAP Season 86
FANS can expect a "faster and braver" Josh Ybañez in the UAAP Season 86 men's volleyball tournament which begins on Saturday, Feb. 17, 2024. Winning the Rookie of the Year, First Best Outside Spiker, and Most Valuable Player awards last season, Ybañez said that he looks to improve on his play by going all out all the time.
BUSINESS: Bangko Sentral pauses anew
Over to business, monetary authorities kept key interest rates unchanged as expected on Thursday amid an improvement in inflation conditions. The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas' benchmark rate remains at a 16-year high of 6.5 percent while its overnight deposit and lending rates stay at 6.0 and 7.0 percent, respectively. Thursday's pause — the third in a row after an off-cycle hike in late October — followed two straight months of lower and within-target inflation.
The central bank, however, said consumer price growth could again move higher even as it lowered its risk-adjusted 2024 inflation forecast to 3.9 percent from 4.2 percent. That for 2025 was raised to 3.5 percent from 3.4 percent. The baseline forecast for this year was also trimmed, to 3.6 percent from 3.7 percent, while the 2025 projection was kept at 3.2 percent.
READ: Opinion and editorial
Rigoberto Tiglao and Francisco Tatad are today's front page columnists. Tiglao hits out at a donors list for a signature campaign for charter change, while Tatad asks if the opposition is back.
Today's editorial believes that rising global defense spending could cause a dangerous decade. Read the full version in the paper's opinion section or listen to the Voice of the Times.
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