Author: malaysiang

Hanoi: Hanoi welcomed 737,900 tourists during the National Reunification and May Day holidays, from April 27 to May 1, up 4% year-on-year, the municipal Department of Tourism said.

The city earned 2.5 trillion VND (98.63 million USD) in tourism revenue on the five-day holidays, representing a year-on-year rise of 10%.

Notably, the number of international holidaymakers reached 87,900, a surge of 48% from the same period last year.

Earlier, the department instructed relevant businesses, organisations and individuals to improve their product and service quality and offer new products to tourists during the holidays.

It planned to present 80,000 gifts, including water, milk and bread, to tourists to the President Ho Chi Minh Museum on the Liberation of the South and National Reunification Day (April 30), May Day, President Ho Chi Minh’s birthday (May 19), and National Day (September 2)./.

Source: Vietnam News Agency

SAN FRANCISCO: Sustaining decades-long ties, California’s multicultural city of Daly intends to forge closer linkages with Quezon City, its sister city in the Philippines.

Talking to visiting Filipino journalists at her office on April 29 (San Francisco time), Daly City’s Filipino-American Mayor Juslyn Manalo said she was looking at ways to increase exchanges with the Philippine city, including on progressive leadership and social development.

Daly and Quezon City are in talks for the ‘next steps’ of their relations, with the latter interested in knowing more about her city’s wastewater management model, Manalo added.

Daly City is also interested to share its firefighting apparatus and add to Quezon City’s equipment.

‘We’re looking at ways to support Quezon (City) with some of our firefighting apparatus that we can actually give over since they will be kind of getting the new firefighter apparatus and they were very open to that saying there has been a lot of fires,’ she said.

Meanwhile, the official hop
es to host Quezon City Mayor Joy Belmonte in the future.

‘I had a really amazing conversation with her and I know that she’s also very progressive in her programming and (we know) there’s a lot, so in any way that we can also exchange we’re looking at that,’ she said.

The Quezon City-Daly City sister city relations were established on Aug. 8, 1994 to promote cooperation in the fields of the environment, human resources and community development, science and technology, education and sports, tourism development, and trade.

The two renewed the sister city ties during the regular session of the Daly City Council on July 10, 2023.

‘Inspiring possibilities’

Manalo’s election as the first female Filipino-American mayor in Daly City shows the breadth of connections between the Philippines and the United States.

At present, she leads 100,007 constituents of diverse nationalities, at least 34 percent, or over 34,002 are of Filipino descent.

This number also makes Daly the city with the highest concentration of
Filipinos and Filipino-Americans in the US.

‘I grew up here in Daly City, a very diverse community and I serve all of my community. But I’m so proud of my Filipino heritage,’ she said.

‘With 34 percent of our kababayan (countrymen) here, I think it’s important to have representation. I am the first Filipina and so long overdue,’ she added.

Back in high school, Manalo said she was already surrounded by a large community of Filipinos but she always wondered why there was no female Filipino representing them in the office.

‘I didn’t think I was gonna be it, (that it) would come into fruition that I would be it and so we know that we need to create a pipeline so that the younger generation can see this as a pathway,’ she shared.

Early in her career, she became a community service worker providing direct service to Filipino World War II veterans.

Among her priorities is helping low- to moderate-income families find, defend, and sustain their housing.

She is also a strong advocate against Asian hate in Calif
ornia and has been working closely with Filipino community organizations such as the National Alliance for Filipino Concerns and the Filipino Community Center.

Source: Philippines News Agency

ATHENS: More than 50,000 unaccompanied child migrants went missing after arriving in Europe, a survey by a European journalism project revealed Tuesday.

‘Italy has the highest number of registered missing unaccompanied minors, with 22,899, followed by Austria (20,077), Belgium (2,241), Germany (2,005), and Switzerland (1,226),’ according to the Lost in Europe project, which gathered data from 13 European countries from 2021 – 2023.

The survey said the number of missing children may be even higher because data is often unreliable and incomplete, and many European countries do not collect data on missing unaccompanied minors.

‘These shocking findings underscore the seriousness of the issue, with thousands of children missing and their whereabouts unknown,’ it said.

‘The increased number of reports on missing unaccompanied minors serves as a sharp reminder of the giant iceberg that looms beneath the surface,’ Aagje Ieven, head of Missing Children Europe, said.

Source: Philippines News Agency

SEOUL: President Yoon Suk Yeol vowed to protect the “value of labor” as he marked Labor Day on Wednesday.

In a Facebook post, he thanked the 28.4 million workers for their ‘sweat and efforts’, which he attributed for the remarkable growth of South Korea.

“The government and I will protect the precious value of labor without fail,” he wrote. “We will make your workplaces safer and fairer, and thoroughly see to it that you can find the meaning of life through labor.”

Source: Philippines News Agency

MANILA: Vice President and Education Secretary Sara Z. Duterte on Wednesday, Labor Day, lauded the dedication and hard work of so-called modern-day heroes.

“Saludo kami sa hindi matatawarang sipag at dedikasyon ninyo. Ang bawat araw ninyong pagsusumikap ay aming gabay tungo sa landas ng pag-unlad ng ating bayan (We salute your unwavering diligence and dedication. Each day of your hard work serves as our guide towards the prosperity of our nation),” she said in a statement.

Duterte also highlighted the contributions of overseas Filipino workers (OFWs), medical and security frontliners, community workers, teachers, and all other workers both in public service and private sectors in nation-building.

“Kayo ang itinuturing na tunay na bayani sa makabagong panahon. Nawa’y ipagpatuloy natin ang pagtahak sa isang maunlad na kinabukasan (You’re the true heroes of the new age. We hope to continue to move forward to a brighter future),” she added.

In the education sector, meanwhile, Duterte approved the rationalizat
ion of the workloads and specifications of ancillary tasks of all public school teachers, two days before Labor Day, through Department Order No. 5, series of 2024.

Under DO 5, teachers are allowed to spend longer time, equivalent to six hours, on classroom-based teaching, with the remaining two hours for ancillary tasks which may be done within and outside school premises.

Before the issuance of the order, Duterte earlier directed the removal of administrative tasks from teachers to promote their welfare; as well as improve the quality of teaching processes and outcomes.

Source: Philippines News Agency

MANILA: President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. said Wednesday the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) would temporarily suspend the Wholesale Electricity Spot Market (WESM) operation during a red alert notice in the country’s power grids to tame the rising prices of electricity.

In a speech in Malacañang, Marcos assured that the government is taking the necessary steps to ease the burden of consumers after the series of yellow and red alert notices in the Luzon and Visayas grids in the past weeks due to the significant increase in demand owing to the extreme heat that the country experiences brought by the El Niño phenomenon.

‘Dahil sa matinding init, tumataas ang konsumo ng kuryente na nakakadagdag sa pag-akyat ng presyo. Kahapon lamang ay kumilos na ang Energy Regulatory Commission o ERC upang pansamantalang isuspende ang operasyon ng tinatawag na Wholesale Electricity Spot Market o WESM kapag may idineklarang Red Alert ang System Operator o NGCP (Due to the extreme heat, electricity consumption is on the rise,
adding to the price hike. So, yesterday, the Energy Regulatory Commission or ERC acted to temporarily suspend the operation of the Wholesale Electricity Spot Market or WESM when the System Operator or NGCP [National Grid Corp. of the Philippines] declares a Red Alert),’ he said.

‘Ito ay naglalayon na pigilan ang pagtaas ng presyo ng kuryente sa gitna ng kalamidad na dulot ng El Niño (This move aims to prevent an increase in electricity prices amid the disaster caused by El Niño).’

The WESM is the centralized venue for buyers and sellers to trade electricity as a commodity where prices are determined based on demand and supply.

Under Republic Act 9136 or the ‘Electric Power Industry Reform Act of 2001’ (EPIRA), the ERC may suspend the operation of the WESM or declare a temporary WESM failure in cases of national and international security emergencies or natural calamities.

The ERC said in a news release Tuesday that during the WESM suspension, the ‘administered price shall apply.’

Administered price is th
e price imposed by the market operator to trading participants.

Source: Philippines News Agency