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(Manila Bulletin) Kickstarting venture capital investment with food tech.

If you’re anywhere in the Philippines around lunch time and haven’t yet had a bite to eat, you’ll likely receive an invitation from an unlikely source. Be it from a street vendor or even the security guard of an establishment already partaking in a meal, “Kain tayo” is something you’ll hear without fail.

It’s quite appropriate as food is at the heart of Filipino culture. Filipinos spend almost 30 per cent of their income on food alone. This gives any food-related business massive potential for growth. It’s quite appropriate that the Philippines impending tech revolution could be kickstarted by its food industry.

The food and beverage (F&B) business used to be a daunting one, particularly for those new to it. A budding restaurant wouldn’t just need a great chef, but lots of capital, some business acumen, and a great location as well. Brick and mortar restaurants were the true test of great food ideas but required massive investment, management, and lots of time and effort.

Yet these days, we’re seeing a bumper harvest of new cuisine. However they’re not found in new restaurants. Many are only available for order online, and exclusively brought by delivery. There’s greater variety too, from reinterpretations of old favorites, the usual comfort food, to increasingly niche cuisines such as rendang or kimchi… Read More

(Radio Free Asia) The outgoing president spoke out during the commissioning of a Coast Guard “multi-role response vessel.”

The Philippines cannot afford war with China, outgoing President Rodrigo Duterte told Filipino coast guard personnel in what could be his final policy statement on the South China Sea issue, after Manila filed fresh diplomatic protests over Chinese boats in disputed waters.

With a few weeks left in his presidency, Duterte made the remark during a ceremony on Sunday to commission the BRP Melchora Aquino, the latest addition to the Philippine Coast Guard’s fleet. The so-called “multi-role response vessel” will help the force patrol the Philippine archipelago’s vast shorelines and deter Chinese incursions into waters claimed by Manila, officials said.

“We cannot afford fighting with China. We cannot win and we will lose and the population will suffer,” he said, according to an official transcript of his speech released on Monday.

Duterte spoke out after the Department of Foreign Affairs announced last Thursday that it had “protested the return of over 100 Chinese vessels illegally operating in the waters in and around Julian Felipe Reef on 04 April 2022, barely a year after the same swarming incident was protested by the Philippine government.”.. Read More

(The Sun UK) Mark Page, 63, a radio host at the station in the 1980s, will now spend 18 years behind bars.

The disgraced DJ was originally given a 12-year sentence by Judge Paul Watson at Teesside Crown Court in March.

He had been convicted of four counts of arranging the commission of a child sex offence between 2016 and 2019.

Page a divorced father-of-three from Stockton, Teesside, had denied all charges.

But today three appeal court judges concluded his sentence was unduly lenient at a Court of Appeal hearing in London, after an application by Solicitor General Alex Chalk.

Lord Justice William Davis, Mr Justice Martin Spencer and Judge Kristina Montgomery concluded that Page’s “overall criminality” was not reflected by the 12-year sentence.

Barrister Benjamin Holt, who represented Mr Chalk at the appeal hearing, had raised concerned about the “totality” of the 12-year term.

He suggested that the sentence should be between 12 and 24 years.

A barrister representing Page had argued that the sentence was too long.

Trevor Burke QC suggested that the term should be cut to 10 years… Read More

(Time) Boracay is among the finest of the 7,641 Philippine islands and, for a long time, was one of the least known, its four square miles a closely guarded secret. Sequestered in the center of the archipelago, the island’s pristine beaches and gin-clear waters were the refuge of the handful of native Ati inhabitants—until the rest of the world caught on.

Too Late the Hero, a 1970 American war film shot on Boracay with big name stars Michael Caine and Henry Fonda, is credited with sparking international interest in the stunning location. The ensuing trickle of curious backpackers became a flood in 1979, after a German travel author, Jens Peters, published his definitive Philippines Travel Guide and proclaimed Boracay a “paradise.” Just over a decade later, the Tropical Beach Handbook—a Michelin-style compendium sponsored by automaker BMW—hailed Boracay beach as the best in the world.

Naturally, such recognition came at a price. From a community that didn’t even have electricity until 1992, Boracay rapidly turned into an international party hub, its shoreline crammed with dusk-till-dawn bars and clubs.

In 2019, the year before the pandemic brought travel to a halt, some two million tourists visited Boracay, pumping around $1 billion into the tiny island. But over the years, tourism also generated enormous problems, particularly with garbage and sewage disposal. Raw sewage was being pumped into the sea and broken glasses, bottles, and plastic cups littered the shoreline. Things got so bad that President Rodrigo Duterte called the island a “cesspool” and banned tourists for six months in 2018 so that a cleanup could take place… Read More

(The Frontier Post) BANGKOK (AP): A top State Department official met Thursday with Philippine President-elect Ferdinand Marcos Jr. in Manila, part of an ongoing diplomatic outreach in the Asia-Pacific region by Washington to try and blunt growing Chinese influence.

Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman tweeted after meeting Marcos that the two discussed a range of issues, including the Philippines-U.S. alliance, deepening economic ties, advancing human rights and “preserving a free and open Indo-Pacific.”

Marcos, the son of longtime Philippine dictator Ferdinand Marcos Sr. who was ousted in a popular uprising in 1986, was elected in a landslide last month, alarming human rights activists and pro-democracy groups.

The U.S. appears prepared to work with him, with President Joe Biden being one of the first world leaders to call Marcos and congratulate him on his electoral victory.

Further details on his meeting with Sherman were not immediately available, but her trip comes as part of a broader effort to reach out in person to leaders in the region as concern increases over China’s push to expand its own influence in a strategically critical area… Read More

(Journal Online) MANILA – For the first time ever, Red Bull Dance Your Style, the brand’s take on a global 1-on-1 street dance competition with a unique battle format featuring the latest hits and timeless classics that challenge a dancer’s freestyle and improvisation skills, is coming to the Philippines.

Unlike other major dance competitions with professional judges, the crowd will play a crucial role in determining the winner of each battle. The crowd participation means the dancers will really need to express their personality and passion through their dancing. They’ll need to win the crowd to move past their opponents.

Red Bull Dance Your Style: The Ultimate Proving Ground

The first major Red Bull Dance Your Style Philippines event will kick off at the BGC Amphitheatre with the National Finals on July 23, featuring the top 16 dancers who qualified and pre-selected by nationally-established dance consultant and a member of the Philippine All-Stars Vince Mendoza. “The selection process was not easy and hard as well. Can you imagine gathering talented people and sizing up their skill-set? It’s like a dream and also having that excitement during the selection process.”, shares Mendoza when asked about the decision-making that went into choosing the country’s representatives.

All the participants will be gathering together in one place for an intense yet fun dance battle to test the diversity of their move-set while proving that they are the best dancer in the world.

Each round of every battle will consist of two thrilling rounds with the DJ spinning mixes of different genres ranging from modern pop and rap music to old-school classics. The competitors will need to prove that they have rhythm, movement, creativity, and charisma since capturing the crowd’s attention and acquiring their approval is the only way to secure a spot in the next round of the competition… Read More

(Radio Free Asia) Filipino fishermen whose boat sank in 2019 after a Chinese trawler rammed into it in disputed South China Sea waters have received six million Philippine pesos (U.S $113,421) in compensation, the Department of Justice said Wednesday.

However, a fishers’ association criticized the settlement for the 22 fishermen and the owner as too little and coming too late.

Justice Undersecretary Adrian Sugay told reporters that the owner of the F/B Gem-Ver 1 boat and the fishermen had received the compensation on May 16, with officials adding that the settlement amount was half of what the victims sought.

“Full compensation has already been made in favor of the vessel owner and the fishermen,” Sugay said in his message. The original amount demanded by the fishermen represented repair costs, other damages, and income lost due to the incident.

Fernando Hicap, head of Pamalakaya, a fisherman’s group, called the compensation to the 22 fishermen and the owner of the boat that sank “long overdue and insufficient.”

“The 22 victimized fishermen have been enduring the loss of their traditional livelihood after the tragic incident in Recto Bank. It took three years before they were improperly compensated.” Hicap told BenarNews… Read More

(Daily Tribune) Agnes VST Devanadera, the incumbent chairperson of the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC), has a lot of gall to make unsolicited recommendations to the incoming administration of President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. about the energy concerns of the country.

It’s either that, or Devanadera, who just turned 72 last April, is getting senile and needs to retire from public service for her own good and that of the nation itself. The ERC regulates the cost of electricity in the country.

Agnes VST Devanadera, the incumbent chairperson of the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC), has a lot of gall to make unsolicited recommendations to the incoming administration of President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. about the energy concerns of the country.

It’s either that, or Devanadera, who just turned 72 last April, is getting senile and needs to retire from public service for her own good and that of the nation itself.

The ERC regulates the cost of electricity in the country.

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Ever since she became ERC chairperson in 2017, Devanadera has done nothing to stabilize the supply and cost of energy in the Philippines. Her incompetence and inaction have kept electricity very expensive for consumers.

The National Grid Corporation of the Philippines (NGCP) showcases Devanadera’s incompetence as ERC chairperson.

Under the law governing the NGCP, only Filipinos are allowed to hold top management positions in the said corporation. Foreigners with investments in the NGCP are not allowed to muscle their way in the management of the corporation.

The law also requires the NGCP to closely monitor the national electricity grid to make sure that a steady supply of electricity is readily available in areas of the country where and when it is needed most. That means putting regional stations on alert to prevent power outages anywhere… Read More