February 2019

Public school teachers to get salary increases; asked to wait a bit

Thursday, February 28, 2019 Mavie Global - Ultron Staking 0

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Duterte asked the teachers to wait for the Salary Increase<br />
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President Duterte has appealed to public school teachers to “wait for a little” longer for the increase in their salaries he proposed this year.<br />
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<i>Photo Credits to RTVM </i></div>
<br /><div dir="ltr" trbidi="on">During a recent campaign rally in Cebu City, Philippines, President Rodrigo Duterte admitted that there was no sufficient budget yet to fund his plan of doubling the wages of public school teachers, but assured that their salaries would eventually be doubled just like the police. He added that he had talked to Budget Secretary Benjamin Diokno about the funds needed for the proposed salary adjustment for public school teachers, but had given priority to doubling the pay of government troops since they were in the frontline in addressing national security threats.</div><div dir="ltr" trbidi="on"><br /></div><div dir="ltr" trbidi="on">It can be recalled that last January, the President pledged to raise the salaries of public school teachers this year after approving the pay hike to soldiers and policemen. According to Diokno, government workers are expected to get a pay increase as part of the fourth tranche of the Salary Standardization Law. Once the budget bill is signed into law, the salary adjustment will be applied retroactively from January 2019.</div><div dir="ltr" trbidi="on"><br /></div>
Source: <a href="https://news.mb.com.ph/2019/02/26/public-school-teachers-to-get-salary-increases-asked-to-wait-a-bit/" target="_blank">Manila Bulletin</a> </div>

Education Public school teachers to get salary increases; asked to wait a bit

Duterte asked the teachers to wait for the Salary Increase President Duterte has appealed to public school teachers to “wait for a little...

Duterte ready to shut down PLDT if anti-graft hotline doesn’t improve

Thursday, February 28, 2019 Mavie Global - Ultron Staking 0

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President Rodrigo Duterte said he will not think twice on shutting down the business of PLDT Inc. if it fails to improve the government’s anti-graft hotline.<br />
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<i>Image by Presidential Communications via Facebook page</i></div>
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While in Cebu, the President mentioned his efforts in fighting corruption in the government. Part of the President’s campaign is the establishment of an anti-graft trunkline, where the public can easily report any acts of corruptions and complaints from any government agency by simply calling 8888.<br />
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However, Duterte complained that the 8888 hotline isn’t accessible because it’s always busy. He instructed former Special Assistant to President Christopher “Bong” Go to add another trunk line. The President said, “If you see corruption, tell me. Call 8888. Bong, add another trunk line. The present setup can’t accommodate all the calls. It’s always busy.”<br />
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Duterte continued that if not, he will not hesitate in stopping the telecommunication giant’s business. He said, “Tell PLDT. If not, I’ll shut down their business.”<br />
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The President added that the PLDT still owed the government money and he is very willing to ask for it in time. He said, “Oo, that’s true. I don’t want to brag, but they owe the government eight billion [pesos]. No President has ever asked for payment. But when I became President, I said…”<br />
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Meanwhile, PLDT has issued a statement that they are now working at improving their services. Following the President’s remarks,  PLDT spokesman Ramon Isberto said, “We are currently taking steps to address the concern expressed by the President to improve the public’s access to the Citizen’s Complaint Center 8888 hotline number.”<br />
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The 8888 Citizens’ Complaint Hotline was launched in August 2016. It is a 24-hour national citizens’ complaint hotline. Complaints will be referred for immediate action to concerned agencies, which are expected to respond within five working days.<br />
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Source: <a href="http://virtualpinoy.com/" target="_blank">Virtual Pinoy</a></div>

President Rodrigo Duterte said he will not think twice on shutting down the business of PLDT Inc. if it fails to improve the government’s a...

Permanent Mobile Number, Approved by Duterte

Sunday, February 24, 2019 Mavie Global - Ultron Staking 0

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In other countries in the West like Canada and the United States of America, they can port their numbers into other carriers or providers if they wish to do so. In our country, however, that’s yet to be approved until last year, when the House of Representatives approved House Bill 7652 or also known as the Mobile Number Portability bill.<br />
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lifestyle news Telecommunications Permanent Mobile Number, Approved by Duterte

In other countries in the West like Canada and the United States of America, they can port their numbers into other carriers or provide...

Duterte signs universal healthcare bill into law

Friday, February 22, 2019 Mavie Global - Ultron Staking 0

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President Rodrigo Duterte on Wednesday signed into law a landmark bill that guarantees all Filipinos equal access to quality and affordable goods and services in healthcare.<br />
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Duterte signed the Universal Health Care Act during a ceremony in Malacañang.<br />
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Under the law, all Filipino citizens are automatically enrolled into the National Health Insurance Program as direct contributors or those who have the capacity to pay premiums, and indirect contributors sponsored by the government such as indigents and senior citizens.<br />
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It has a funding requirement of P257 billion but was given appropriations of only P217 billion under the proposed 2019 national budget.<br />
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Health Secretary Francisco Duque III earlier said the funding gap of P40 billion would mean not all hospitals or health centers as envisioned under the law would be constructed.<br />
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The construction of barangay health units in fourth to sixth class municipalities would be prioritized, so patients would not have to visit hospitals for minor ailments, Duque said.<br />
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The law also mandates the expansion of Philippine Health Insurance Corporation (PhilHealth) coverage to include free consultation fees, laboratory tests, and other diagnostic services.<br />
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PhilHealth was created in 1995 to implement universal health coverage in the country. As a government-owned and controlled corporation, PhilHealth is tax-exempt and attached to the Department of Health.<br />
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Filipinos who are not enrolled in PhilHealth could still benefit from health care services since the premium subsidy will be gradually adjusted and included in the General Appropriations Act.<br />
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The law also calls for an improved doctor-to-patient ratio as well as an upgrade of hospital bed capacities and equipment and the establishment of hospitals in remote areas. —VDS/ LDF, GMA News<br />
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Source: GMA Network</div>

lifestyle news Politics Duterte signs universal healthcare bill into law

President Rodrigo Duterte on Wednesday signed into law a landmark bill that guarantees all Filipinos equal access to quality and affordable...

OPINION: K-12 is 6 years of high school for nothing

Friday, February 22, 2019 Mavie Global - Ultron Staking 0

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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><i>Is the K to 12 education system as effective as the government promised it to be? One of the first graduates of K to 12 writes about the failures of the new education system and how the DepEd may improve it. Photo by JILSON TIU</i></span><br />
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Manila (CNN Philippines Life) — Today, it appears that the first students to graduate from K to 12 have been forgotten and swept in the dustbin of history. After enduring two additional years of high school where the implementation was unclear for teachers and students all throughout, the guinea pigs of the K to 12 reform have every right to be distressed at the Department of Education’s lack of evidence of its success.<br />
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Employability was the top selling point of the K to 12 curriculum, but it was clear as early as January of this year that graduates of senior high school, or Grade 12, would not be able to compete in the workforce as promised by the Department of Education (DepEd). A 2018 JobStreet report shows that only 24 percent of employers were willing to hire K to 12 graduates as the rest still cited having a college degree as the primary qualification for employment. Worse, the department currently has no data on how many senior high school graduates were able to find work related to the track that they had completed.<br />
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For instance, senior high school graduate Luis* studied in a relatively small college in Pasig City with a tuition fee that only cost ₱10,000 per semester. He took up Information in Communication and Technology (ICT) because of his interests in computer science. However, because of the limited space in the school and the difficulty of hiring teachers who could teach the advanced subjects, Luis never thought of any other job opportunity in his track aside from entering the call center industry. Additionally, he says that the “poor implementation of senior high school” in his school had contributed to the year-long mess that he and his classmates experienced.<br />
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“Most students are angry because of the school’s curriculum. In fact, the school doesn’t follow the prescribed curriculum anymore. They just force the students to join their weekly event and pay some money to pass the exam which is very wrong,” he says.<br />
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Luis, who needs to support himself now that he is living away from his parents, plans to continue to college after a year of working as a customer service representative in a call center.<br />
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“I guess there’s more to ICT than working in a call center, but I don’t know. I didn’t learn much [from senior high school].”<br />
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Alexandra Villacorta, a Humanities and Social Science student from a senior high school in Antipolo City, also tried to find a job after graduating. She applied for jobs in different companies but didn’t get call backs for certain interviews because she had not yet finished 2 years of college.<br />
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Alexandra, who was a former literary writer in their school paper, settled for whatever jobs that were available.<br />
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“I started small. I took home ₱250 a day for house cleaning and tutorial services before I decided to work in the call center,” she recounts. “When I started getting sick from the night shifts, I decided to do e-commerce instead and be my own boss.”<br />
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Now deciding to take a gap year, Alexandra plans to continue to college after earning enough money. For her, being a senior high school graduate is not enough.<br />
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“My mom almost didn't finish her schooling once she started earning money during her time,” she says. “Hindi pwede ‘yung ganitong klaseng buhay lang. I earn for my education because I know I'll find purpose in it.”<br />
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And for a curriculum that has banked on producing globally competitive graduates with “21st-century skills,” it’s going against its own mandate by merely producing cheap labor for outsourcing agencies and multinational companies. We don’t need creative imagination to deduce which jobs are waiting for thousands of senior high school graduates from small schools in low economic areas: blue-collared work in factories or customer service work in call centers or fast-food chains — jobs that have been accepting high school graduates even before K to 12 was introduced.<br />
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If this is the case, then two years of tuition fees, insurmountable effort, and time from the students’ part had gone to waste as they had only ended up in the same inhumane Philippine labor force where labor rights are routinely violated. When you have an education system that seems to be riddled with more problems than solutions, students are the ones to take the hit the hardest. K to 12 worsens, not improves, poor families’ conditions by aggravating their circumstances with added costs of education.<br />
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><i>"The government should take steps to address the lack of classrooms in public schools with the increasing population of high school students and the poor procurement of learning materials," says Chi. Photo by JILSON TIU</i></span></div>
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<b>Birthing Pains</b></div>
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Introducing an educational reform as big as K to 12 will always result in birthing pains, but this does not mean that the government will cease to be accountable to the students that were experimented on. Birthing pains can very easily turn to permanent wounds to the Philippine education system that seems to be only one bruise away from collapsing altogether.</div>
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In my high school, the San Beda University Senior High School, Media, and Information Literacy were taught like a confused arts class where students are typically asked to submit drawings and slogans. For our performance task, we took different pictures of sceneries based on the photography angles we learned in class. Students from other classes were asked to submit videos of themselves performing spoken word poetry. I don’t remember any discussion on fake news, critical thinking, fact-checking sources, and other topics that would actually make a student media literate, as the name of the subject implies. In fact, my teacher in the subject was a graduate of Computer Science and Physics.</div>
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While I understand that my school (and my teacher) may have only been following DepEd’s curriculum, we must be clear about what senior high school’s subjects are all about and hire teachers who have extensive knowledge about the subjects. Teachers should have more access to enrolling in master’s degree programs to be able to guide the students effectively and to have a solid background in the subject. We should not merely throw hooray words like “global,” “international,” and “21st century” around to make the subjects appear different from its Junior High School counterparts when in reality, they are the same basic subjects that provide redundant information.</div>
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The new curriculum and the addition of two more years of high school should be evidence-based, but even one of the only systems of assessment of Grade 12 students’ knowledge, which is the National Achievement Test (NAT), had been delayed. The NAT was originally scheduled before the end of the school year, but we ended up taking the test as late as April.</div>
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According to San Beda University Senior High School’s Assistant Prefect for Student Activities Benjamin Sonajo, the NAT for our batch was pushed back twice because “the printing for testing materials had been delayed.” As a result, the two-day test was attended by only half of our class.</div>
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How can the DepEd accurately measure the improvement of students’ knowledge during senior high school when its few systems of assessment had not been prepared for by department officials? Problems with the printing of the booklets are not an excuse in this scenario — they had two whole years to prepare for the evaluation of the new reform which had been contested by many as useless. Senior high school, which was also tagged as college preparatory as it claimed to give students the fundamentals of all general education subjects in college, risks being truly useless if the department will not conduct thorough research on its first implementation.</div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><i>The writer suggests that for K to 12 work, DepEd should invest in the primary executors of its curriculum who can translate its aims from paper to practice. Teachers who are overworked and underpaid are at risk of being spread even thinner from the addition of two more years of high school. Photo by JL JAVIER</i></span><br />
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<b>DepEd’s accountability</b><br />
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“Education either functions as an instrument which is used to bring about conformity or it becomes the practice of freedom, the means by which men and women deal critically and creatively with reality and discover how to participate in the transformation of their world,” was how Paulo Freire wrote about education in his book “Pedagogy of the Oppressed.” This is more relevant than ever as Education Secretary Leonor Briones moves to review the K to 12 curriculum.<br />
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It’s important that DepEd proposes concrete, long-term solutions based on evidence if it wants K to 12 to work. They should stop tagging senior high school as an alternative to college for those who would like to work immediately after graduation, as this leaves plenty of students at risk of becoming cheap robots tied to manual labor. Education should be the force that liberates students from being stuck in the cycle of poverty, but if things continue the way they are, more and more Filipinos will be hard pressed to even finish senior high school.<br />
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For K to 12 work, DepEd should invest in the primary executors of its curriculum who can translate its aims from paper to practice. Teachers who are overworked and underpaid are at risk of being spread even thinner from the addition of two more years of high school. The answer to this problem is to increase the pay of teachers and to offer more advanced education opportunities for them to effectively teach the new subjects in senior high. Just like us, they too are blindly groping in the dark as to how to navigate an unknown system. They shoulder the heavy responsibility of making sure the new education reform will work — it follows that they deserve all the support they can get.<br />
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Lastly, the government should take steps to address the lack of classrooms in public schools with an increasing population of high school students and the poor procurement of learning materials. They should also revise the senior high school curriculum and carefully oversee the implementation of first-time subjects such as Media and Information Literacy; Trends, Networks, and Critical Thinking in the 21st Century; and conduct a comprehensive review of the curriculum before selling it as a two-year solution to make high school students job-ready. Education reforms need to be given a chance, but we must remember that the students suffering from the experimentation deserve a sure future, too.<br />
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As of press time, the Department of Education’s website for Frequently Asked Questions on K to 12 has been wiped of its old contents where I used to read about how I would become job-ready after graduating from senior high school.<br />
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This shows that the department, in its efforts to review the whole curriculum, should still answer to the very real concerns of the pioneer batch of K to 12 who are still trying to reconcile what seems like two years of wasted time and resources. A tall order? Perhaps. But the senior high school had no significant impact on the majority of students who worked or proceeded to college.<br />
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In the end, we have thousands of students who feel they’ve been delayed by K to 12, including me.<br />
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*Name has been changed at subject’s request.<br />
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Source: CNN Philippines</div>

Education k-12resources opinion OPINION: K-12 is 6 years of high school for nothing

Is the K to 12 education system as effective as the government promised it to be? One of the first graduates of K to 12 writes about the ...

Mexican drug lord Joaquin 'El Chapo' Guzmán's sons indicted on drug charges

Friday, February 22, 2019 Mavie Global - Ultron Staking 0

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(CNN)The United States has charged two sons of drug lord Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzmán Loera with conspiracy to distribute drugs to be imported into the country, the Justice Department announced Thursday.<br />
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The indictment of Joaquin Guzmán Lopez, 34, and Ovidio Guzmán Lopez, 28, who the DOJ says are believed to live in Mexico, was unsealed last week.<br />
From April 2008 through April 2018, the brothers conspired to distribute cocaine, marijuana, and methamphetamine from Mexico and other places to be imported into the United States, prosecutors said.<br />
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It was not immediately clear if the two had legal representation. CNN has reached out to attorneys for the elder Guzmán.<br />
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Guzmán, 61, once headed a criminal enterprise that spanned continents and triggered bloodshed throughout his native Mexico.<br />
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He was found guilty earlier this month on all 10 federal criminal counts against him, including engaging in a continuing criminal enterprise, conspiracy to launder narcotics proceeds, international distribution of cocaine, heroin, marijuana, and other drugs, and use of firearms.<br />
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His conviction on the top charge of engaging in a continuing criminal enterprise carries a mandatory term of life in prison. He will be sentenced on June 25.<br />
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CNN's Ray Sanchez, Sonia Moghe and Elizabeth Hartfield contributed to this report<br />
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Source: CNN Philippines</div>

trending Mexican drug lord Joaquin 'El Chapo' Guzmán's sons indicted on drug charges

(CNN)The United States has charged two sons of drug lord Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzmán Loera with conspiracy to distribute drugs to b...

New law removes extra charges for texts, calls to other networks

Friday, February 22, 2019 Mavie Global - Ultron Staking 0

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Metro Manila (February 20, CNN Philippines) — Mobile phone users would no longer have to pay extra for calling and texting other networks, thanks to a new law.<br />
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Under the Mobile Number Portability Act signed recently by President Rodrigo Duterte, mobile service providers should not charge an interconnection fee for domestic calls and texts upon effectivity of the law.<br />
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"Ibig sabihin kahit tumawag ka sa Globe, Smart o doon sa third telco, wala na silang sisingilin na interconnection fees sa text at sa tawag," Senator Sherwin Gatchalian, the primary author of the law, told CNN Philippines' Balitaan on Wednesday.<br />
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[Translation: This means that even if you call to Globe, Smart or to the third telco, they would no longer charge interconnection fees for texts and calls.]<br />
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Currently, the National Telecommunications Commission pegs interconnection charges at P0.05 per message and P0.50 per minute for calls.<br />
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Gatchalian said this amendment in the bill was introduced by Senator Panfilo "Ping" Lacson, who raised the possibility of users not benefitting from the law which allows them to transfer mobile networks without changing numbers because they still have to pay interconnection charges for calls and texts to other networks.<br />
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Gatchalian said mobile service providers can easily shoulder this, as interconnection fees only account for a fraction of their income.<br />
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Under the law, mobile service providers that do not let subscribers switch to another network within 24 hours would be fined from ₱10,000 to ₱1,000,000 and even have their franchises revoked. Subscribers are also entitled to damages of up to ₱40,000.<br />
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Gatchalian said the implementing rules and regulations (IRR) of the law should be completed within 90 days after its enactment.<br />
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The National Privacy Commission said it will work with the National Telecommunications Commission and other government agencies to provide additional inputs in the crafting of the IRR and other policies related to number porting.<br />
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The privacy body vowed to provide safeguards to protect the personal data of mobile subscribers.<br />
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CNN Philippines Multi-platform Writer Xave Gregorio and CNN Philippines Correspondent Carolyn Bonquin contributed to this report.<br />
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Source: CNN Philippines</div>

Politics Telecommunications trending New law removes extra charges for texts, calls to other networks

Metro Manila (February 20, CNN Philippines) — Mobile phone users would no longer have to pay extra for calling and texting other networks, ...

Duterte signs national integrated cancer control act

Friday, February 22, 2019 Mavie Global - Ultron Staking 0

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MANILA - President Rodrigo Duterte has signed the National Integrated Cancer Control Act, a measure that aims to prevent cancer cases and improve cancer survivorship among Filipinos by scaling up essential programs and increasing investments that battle cancer.<br />
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Signed by the President on Feb. 14 and released by the Palace on Tuesday, Republic Act 11215, creates the National Integrated Cancer Control Program which shall serve as the framework for all cancer-related activities of the government.<br />
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According to Sen. JV Ejercito, one of the authors and sponsors of the law, cancer is the 3rd leading cause of adult death and 4th in child mortality.<br />
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The Philippine Cancer Facts and Estimates of the Department of Health said there are up to 8 deaths per day for childhood cancer and up to 11 new cases and 7 deaths every hour for adult cancer in the Philippines.<br />
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There are approximately 110,000 new cancer cases and over 66,000 cancer deaths each year.<br />
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The program aims to decrease the overall mortality and impact of all adult and childhood cancer, lessen the incidence of preventable cancer in adults and children, and prevent cancer recurrence, metastasis, and secondary cancer among survivors and people living with cancer.<br />
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It also seeks to provide timely access to optimal cancer treatment and care for all patients, make cancer treatment and care more affordable and accessible, improve the experience of cancer treatment and care of patients and families, support the recovery and reintegration to society of cancer survivors, and eliminate various forms of burden on patients, people living with cancer, survivors, and their families.<br />
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The law forms a National Integrated Cancer Control Council which shall act as the policy-making, planning and coordinating body on cancer control, attached to the health department.<br />
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It also mandates the creation of the Philippine Cancer Center, which shall promote and encourage cancer research, provide training to medical professionals, and assist universities, hospitals, and research institutions on cancer research.<br />
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The law also calls on the health department to intensify its cancer awareness campaign and provide the latest and evidence-based information for the prevention and treatment of cancer.<br />
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“The awareness campaign must increase cancer literacy and understanding of risk factors associated with cancer, dispel myths and misconceptions about cancer, and reduce the anxiety, fear, distress, and uncertainty related to cancer,” the law reads.<br />
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A cancer assistance fund is also created under the law. The health department shall manage the fund and may solicit and receive donations.<br />
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Under the law, the Philippine Health Insurance Corporation shall expand its benefits packages to include primary care screening, detection, diagnosis, treatment assistance, supportive care, survivorship follow-up care rehabilitation, and end-of-life care, for all types and stages of cancer in both adults and children.<br />
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A Cancer Control Policy shall also be established in every workplace and form part of employee benefits in the formal sector covering the entire cancer continuum.<br />
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The Insurance Commission shall mandate health maintenance organizations to cover genetic counseling and testing, cancer screening, diagnostics, and palliative care as well as certain therapeutics of all member employees. Employees in the informal sector will be prioritized in the cancer control packages of PhilHealth, while those in the formal sector shall be offered cost-sharing PhilHealth benefit packages.<br />
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Source: ABS-CBN</div>

lifestyle Politics trending Duterte signs national integrated cancer control act

MANILA - President Rodrigo Duterte has signed the National Integrated Cancer Control Act, a measure that aims to prevent cancer cases and i...

President Rodrigo Duterte signs the Expanded Maternity Leave Law

Thursday, February 21, 2019 Mavie Global - Ultron Staking 0

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Just In - President Rodrigo Duterte has signed into law a bill that will grant additional leave benefits for working mothers, the Palace confirmed Thursday.<br />
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Executive Secretary Salvador Medialdea said Duterte signed the law on Wednesday, Feb. 20, beating the 30-day deadline for the proposed measure to lapse into law.<br />
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The Palace has yet to release a copy of the signed measure.<br />
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Under the measure passed by Congress, all working mothers in the government and private sector are guaranteed with 105 days of paid maternity leave credits, with 7 days transferable to fathers. An additional 15 days will be granted to single mothers.<br />
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The law also gives mothers the option to extend their leave for another 30 days without pay. The law also applies to all instances of pregnancies, removing the 4-pregnancy cap.<br />
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Under the previous law, employed women are entitled to 60 days of paid leave for normal delivery and 78 days for cesarean delivery.<br />
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Presidential Spokesperson Salvador Panelo said the government is confident this will not result in discrimination against females in the hiring process.<br />
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The EML bill passed Congress in October 2018 and was transmitted to the Palace on Jan. 21, 2019.<br />
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Source: Abs-Cbn</div>