pinay<3pinoy

(BusnissWorld) PHILIPPINE health authorities want to keep the country’s face mask mandate amid a coronavirus pandemic.

“The position of the Department of Health (DoH) is for us to continue on masking,” office-in-charge Maria Rosario S. Vergeire told the ABS-CBN News Channel on Thursday.

The plan to do away with face masks, which President Ferdinand R. Marcos verbally approved, is meant to boost tourism, she said.

“We need to balance health and the economy,” Ms. Vergeire said, adding that as a compromise, the Health department had agreed to remove the mask mandate among low-risk people and under low-risk settings.

“This will only be done outdoors, in settings where it is not crowded, in settings where there is good ventilation, and this will be done among low risk individuals — meaning not the senior citizens, not those with comorbidities, not the children, and definitely not those having symptoms of COVID-19,” she added… Read More

(CNN Philippines) Metro Manila — The Philippine government asked the International Criminal Court’s (ICC) pre-trial chamber to deny the request for the resumption of the probe into the Duterte administration’s war on drugs.

The country formally submitted its comment on the call of ICC prosecutor Karim Khan to look into the alleged crimes against humanity committed during the anti-drug campaign, the Office of the Solicitor General (OSG) said in a statement Thursday.

According to the OSG, the Philippine government argued that the ICC has no jurisdiction over the situation in the country. It stressed that the complaints lodged before the court are already being investigated by concerned local agencies… Read More

(Journal Online) Manila Mayor Honey Lacuna, Vice Mayor Yul Servo and City Administrator Bernie Ang will lead this

year’s celebration of the Mid-Autumn Festival, also known as the ‘Moon Festival’ or the ‘Mooncake Festival’.

The lineup of activities during the celebration on September 10 of what is considered to be the second most important festival in China next to the Chinese New Year, will be highlighted by the formal opening at 7:30 p.m of September 9, of the newly-rehabilitated Filipino-Chinese Friendship Arch, which greets those visiting Binondo, home of what is touted as the world’s biggest Chinatown in the world.

Lacuna said the said arch, which is at the tip of Jones Bridge, will sport a new look with the installation of impressive, colorful lights to make it more attractive and as the latest addition to the city’s Instagrammable spots.

According to Lacuna, the rehabilitation of the landmark arch comes at no cost to the city and had been shouldered by youthful Chinese entrepreneurs led by the officers and members of the Filipino-Chinese Youth Business Association, Inc. (FCYBAI) and the Filipino-Chinese Youth Business Association, Inc. (FCYBAI), whose members she thanked for having volunteered to beautify, maintain and preserve the iconic arch… Read More

(Palawan News) WEnergy Global has signed a Qualified Third Party (QTP) Service Contract to energize over 7,100 households and 300 small local businesses through 16 microgrids spread over 14 barangays in seven municipalities across the service area of of the Palawan Electric Cooperative (PALECO)

The QTP was signed jointly with Maharlika Clean Power Holdings and Clean Grid Partners, collectively referred to as the Maharlika Consortium, through their Special Purpose Vehicle, Archipelago Renewables Corporation.

The consortium announced in a joint statement that it had won the recently concluded QTP tender of the PALECO to support its mandate for total rural electrification in the province.

In a competitive selection process authorized by the Department of Energy (DOE) and the National Electrification Administration (NEA) in March 2021, and undertaken by PALECO’s Bids and Awards Committee beginning November 2021, the consortium was able to meet the stringent eligibility and renewable energy smart microgrid capability requirements… Read More

(CNN Philippines) Metro Manila — The Inter-Agency Task Force has recommended the optional wearing of face masks outdoors nationwide, Malacañang announced on Wednesday.

Department of Health Officer-in-Charge Ma. Rosario Vergeire said the recommendation was verbally approved by President Ferdinand Marcos, Jr., who is currently in Singapore.

“Doon sa IATF, ang kanilang rekomendasyon ay pag-liberalize ng ating mask wearing mandate and make mask wearing outdoors voluntary across the country. Ito po ay magiging optional in open spaces or non-crowded outdoor areas with good ventilation,” said Press Secretary Trixie Cruz Angeles in a press briefing.

[Translation: The IATF’s recommendation was to liberalize the mask wearing mandate and make mask wearing outdoors voluntary across the country. It will be optional in open spaces or non-crowded.. Read More

(BusinessMirror) Tuesday, as the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) signalled it will take further action to curb inflation, even after back-to-back hikes in recent months.

The statement came after the government announced that local inflation hit 6.3 percent in August, easing slightly from the 6.4 percent in the previous month.

Despite his projection of inflation peaking in the third quarter, Diokno said they still expect inflation to settle within

the Development Budget Coordination Committee (DBCC) projected range for this year.

“Inflation is still expected to remain elevated for the rest of 2022, peaking in Q3 but slower in Q4, but is seen to fall within the 4.5-5.5 percent DBCC assumption for 2022,” he said in a tweet on Tuesday following the Philippine Statistics Authority’s (PSA) report on the August inflation.

The 6.3 percent in August is slower compared to July’s 6.4 percent but remained higher than the 4.4 percent posted in August 2021.

Year-to-date, inflation averaged 4.9 percent, still beyond the government’s target band of 2 to 4 percent… Read More

(Manila Bulletin) Organizations are, more than ever, expected to provide their customers with world-class support. Though great service has always been a requirement for a business to be successful, “world-class” looks different in today’s world. We live in an instantaneous society, 24 hours a day, seven days a week. To truly be customer-focused, organizations have to adapt to what society needs, and that simply isn’t always a worthwhile endeavor to take on internally. This is where call center services in the Philippines add tremendous value.

“Outsourcing your customer support to a call center in the Philippines allows your organization to deliver high-quality customer service, 24 hours a day, seven days a week – precisely what your customers are looking for. Even more, call center services in the Philippines help you achieve that at a fraction of the cost of providing the same level of support in-house or onshore outsourced,” says Ralf Ellspermann, CEO of PITON-Global, an outsourcing provider specializing in award-winning call center services in the Philippines.

Not only is employing call center staff in-house much more expensive than an offshore outsourced solution, but employees also come with more costs than simply their paycheck. It costs your organization to recruit, hire, train, and continuously develop employees. “Adding to the expense further, the turnover rate for call center-like roles in the US is high as it isn’t a particularly sought-after job – forcing you to start the expensive cycle all over again,” says Ellspermann… Read More

(BusinessMirror) TWO years ago, then central bank Governor Nestor A. Espenilla Jr. set out to put the country shoulder to shoulder with 14 nations in the world. It was a noble ambition.

The impetus came along with the release of the World Bank’s comprehensive database on global financial inclusion. The 2017 Global Findex database, a data set that is published every three years, showed that the Philippines has one of the weakest financial inclusion coverages in the region, as reflected by the low account-penetration in its adult population.

In particular, only 34 percent of the country’s adult population has a form of formal relationship with a bank or a financial institution. This pales in comparison with members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations and five additional countries namely Australia, China, Japan, Korea and New Zealand; collectively known as the Asean+5.

In the Asean+5 bloc, Singapore had the highest account penetration with 98 percent of its adult population being included in their financial system. This is followed by Malaysia’s 85 percent, Thailand’s 82 percent and Indonesia’s 49 percent… Read More