Category: General

MANILA: The Philippines has called for the immediate delivery of climate finance commitments and underscored the need to close adaptation finance gaps, including through exploring innovative sources, to support developing nations’ adaptation measures.

In a news release on Thursday, the Climate Change Commission (CCC) said the importance of National Adaptation Plans (NAPs) for developing nations most at risk to and affected by climate change was emphasized at the NAP Expo 2024 in Dhaka, Bangladesh on April 22-25.

During the dialogue with United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) Executive Secretary Simon Stiell, and Bangladesh Minister for Environment, Forestry and Climate Change Saber Hossain Chowdhury, CCC Secretary Robert EA Borje underscored the importance of a holistic approach to close adaptation finance gaps.

Borje also called for a commitment to ensuring that support for developing countries’ NAP formulation and implementation is available and easily accessible.

‘To close the g
aps, address our growing needs, and enhance adaptation action and support, we must work collectively to determine and unlock various sources, including the UNFCCC financial mechanism, and finance options with highest concessionality, least to no conditionalities, and no additional debt burden for developing nations,’ Borje said.

The UN Environment Programme’s Adaptation Gap Report 2023 estimated that support for adaptation falls short by up to USD366 billion per year.

Public finance flows for climate change adaptation from developed to developing countries have declined by 15 percent from 2021 figures, signaling the need to explore other sources for the timely implementation of adaptation measures.

‘We need to go beyond the doubling of adaptation finance by 2025, and delivering on the overdue commitment of USD100 billion for developing countries’ climate actions,’ Borje said. ‘We need to be more creative and innovative to enable our timely implementation of action plans – so that we avoid further loss and
damage while building our adaptive capacities.’

Guided by President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr., the Philippines forges partnerships with various countries, partners, and stakeholders to augment domestic resources, enabling the implementation of climate actions in speed and scale.

In addition to the UNFCCC financial mechanism, including the Green Climate Fund (GCF), Borje highlighted other innovative sources of support applicable to the Philippines, such as bilateral partnerships, private sector investments, foreign-assisted support from development partners and stakeholders, and mechanisms, such as thematic bonds.

From formulation to implementation, Borje underscored the importance of climate finance throughout the iterative process of NAPs.

‘NAPs should then be considered as investment plans. With sufficient finance and transparent and predictable support flows, developing nations can translate plans into concrete actions with results,’ he added.

Discussions on closing adaptation finance gaps and determini
ng the new collective quantified goal on climate finance are expected to progress at the 29th Session of the Conference of Parties (COP29) in Baku, Azerbaijan on Nov. 11-22.

Hosted by the UNFCCC through the Least Developed Countries (LDC) Expert Group or LEG, in collaboration with the Adaptation Committee (AC) and other constituted bodies, the NAP Expo 2024 outcomes will be further discussed in the upcoming Climate Change Conference in June 2024 in Bonn, Germany, and at the COP29.

Source: Philippines News Agency

MANILA: The local stock market ended the day in the negative territory following the slower-than-expected first-quarter economic growth data, while the peso closed flat on Thursday.

The Philippine Stock Exchange index (PSEi) declined by 116.72 points to close at 6,542.46, while All Shares likewise dropped by 35.02 points to 3,481.55.

“The local market plunged by 116.72 points (1.75%) to 6,542.46 as investors were weighed by the dismal Q1 (first quarter) 2024 GDP (gross domestic product) data with growth coming in at 5.7%, falling below expectations and the government’s target range of 6% – 7%,” said Philstocks Financial Inc. analyst Mikhail Philippe Plopenio.

Almost all sectors closed in the red except for Industrial which grew by 36.47 points.

Advancers led decliners at 95 to 87, while 43 shares were unchanged.

The peso, meanwhile, closed flat at 57.38 from Wednesday’s 57.385 finish.

It opened the day at 57.44 and traded between 57.33 and 57.45.

The weighted average for the day stood at 57.383.

Total
volume of trade slightly went down to USD1.09 billion from USD1.15 on Wednesday.

Source: Philippines News Agency

CEBU CITY: Amid intense heat, a fire broke out on Thursday in a grassy land near Barangay Dakit in the northern city of Bogo, the second incident in the locality and the seventh in the province in a month.

SFO1 Julius Luna, chief investigator of Bogo City Fire Office, said firefighters rushed to the area to put off the grassfire at 11 a.m.

‘At past 3 o’clock, we stopped the fire from further spreading. The fire damaged about five hectares of open field, damaging cogon grass. No house and big trees were affected,’ Luna told the Philippine News Agency in an interview.

Luna said the fire started in a grassy land where children cooked the birds and snakes they caught.

It was the second incident in the city since April. The first occurred in Lapaz Bliss.

Also, a grassfire was reported in Barangay Labatan in Liloan town.

A fire also broke out in the mountain barangay of Colawin in the southern town of Argao, affecting three hectares of land on April 1.

On April 7, a massive forest fire hit Oslob town late ev
ening of April 6, turning the green landscape into an inferno.

The wildfire lasted four hours, spreading about 70 hectares of grassland, affecting Cañang, Calumpang, Daan Lungsod, and Poblacion villages of Oslob.

The Cebu City fire department also responded to a grassfire in Tisa on April 7.

Another grassfire was reported in Barangay Bato, Sibonga.

Source: Philippines News Agency

DAVAO CITY: At least 1,241 rice and corn farmers in the Davao del Norte town of Asuncion received cash assistance under the Rice Competitiveness Enhancement Fund – Rice Farmers Financial Assistance (RCEF-RFFA) and fuel discount card (FDC) on Wednesday.

In a statement Thursday, Epifanio Loyola Jr., farmer regional executive director at the Department of Agriculture (DA) 11 (Davao Region), said 1,200 rice farmers received PHP5,000 each while 41 corn farmers received PHP3,000 each for the Fuel Discount Program Caravan.

During the event, he acknowledged the farmers’ contribution to providing food for the country despite experiencing countless crises.

“We will ensure that the DA-11’s projects and programs will definitely provide a positive impact on the lives of our farmers,” Loyola said.

The RFFA seeks to maintain its assistance to rice farmers who cultivate two hectares or less and are affected by the notable drop in palay farm gate prices in time with the implementation of the Rice Tariffication Law.

Meanw
hile, Leorence Nasol, the DA-11 alternate corn focal person, highlighted the department’s goal to enhance the farmers’ productivity through the program and to help ease the effects of the oil price hike in the agriculture sector.

The DA’s Fuel Discount Program aims to provide fuel discounts to farmers and fisherfolk who own agricultural or fishery machinery, either individually or through organizations. It can be claimed through their fuel discount cards, which will be issued in partnership with the Development Bank of the Philippines and will be distributed by the regional field offices of the DA to eligible beneficiaries.

The recipients can present their FDCs to the contracted oil companies or gas stations and claim a maximum amount of PHP3,000 fuel discount.

Source: Philippines News Agency

KUALA LUMPUR, Turkish defence company, Roketsan has proposed its newly-developed ‘ATMACA’ anti-ship missile to the Royal Malaysian Navy (RMN), in an effort to break the domination of French-made anti-ship missile on the Malaysian market.

Roketsan Central Asia and Far East Regional Manager Cumhur Murat Boz said they have already kick-started negotiations with RMN on the prospect of introducing the anti-ship missile on Malaysian warships.

‘Now we are negotiating with the RMN for the procurement of ATMACA, but we are waiting for the contract between Turkiye Savunma Teknolojieri Muhendiskil (STM) and the RMN to be signed (for the possible acquisition of Littoral Mission Ship (LMS) Batch II).

‘We are sure that RMN will decide to procure ATMACA anti-ship missile since it has been qualified and delivered to Turkish Navy,’ he told Bernama in an interview today, held on the sidelines of the Defence Services Asia (DSA) and National Security (NATSEC) Asia 2024 exhibition here, today.

For decades, most of RMN’s warsh
ips have been using the ‘EXOCET’ anti-ship missile developed by European defence company, MBDA, but if Malaysia inked a contract with STM for the procurement of LMS Batch II, it will probably see the entrance of Turkish-made anti-ship missile to the Malaysia market.

In a separate interview earlier, Turkish shipbuilder, STM expressed its optimism about sealing the LMS Batch II deal to supply the RMN with the warships which would be based from the Ada-class Corvette design.

STM general manager Ozgur Guleryuz said discussions with RMN and the Malaysian Ministry of Defence (Mindef) have been going smoothly for nearly two years.

‘Insya-Allah we hope to sign the memorandum of understanding (with RMN) soon (on the LMS Batch II),’ he said.

In another testament to the capability and reliability of ‘ATMACA’ anti-ship missile, Boz said, the Turkish Navy has opted to replace all US-made ‘Harpoon’ anti-ship missiles used by its warships with Roketsan’s locally-developed anti-ship missile.

He also said as regional nav
ies upgrade their capabilities and acquire new assets to keep up with the fast-changing security environment, the demand for anti-ship missiles will increase.

‘There is also a huge demand for anti-ship missiles especially in the Asia Pacific region and in other parts of the world. We are sure, we are very happy and we are confident with our products,’ he said adding that most of the products developed by Roketsan are combat-proven.

It was reported in January this year that Indonesia has awarded a contract to its local company, PT Republik Defensindo, to acquire 45 units of the ‘ATMACA’ anti-ship missile, making the Southeast Asian country the first outside Turkiye to buy the anti-ship missile.

Weighing 750kg, the ‘ATMACA’ anti-ship missile proposed to RMN utilises the Inertial Navigation System (INS) and Global Positioning System (GPS) which enabled it to strike targets up to 280km away with pinpoint accuracy.

The anti-ship missile operates autonomously, maintains a low radar cross-section (RCS), function
s in all weather conditions and is capable of countering various countermeasure systems.

ROKETSAN has been developing ‘ATMACA’ for ten years and only unveiled the missile to the public in 2019.

Source: BERNAMA News Agency

DUMAGUETE CITY: Negros Oriental officials have assured its constituents that waste from the provincial hospital is being properly disposed of as the province embarks on a multi-billion-peso “Medical City” project over the next three years.

Dr. Liland Estacion, Provincial Health Office (PHO) chief, told the Philippine News Agency on Thursday that safe disposal of infectious and non-infectious or regular waste from the Negros Oriental Provincial Hospital (NOPH) is being integrated into its project.

‘The province has already initially acquired a shredder machine that will turn the hospital waste into powder before these will be disposed,’ Estacion said.

However, the equipment, which Governor Manuel Sagarbarria on Wednesday said was more like an ‘incinerator,’ had to be returned to the supplier after it was discovered following its delivery that it had not met the specifications of the province.

Currently, the NOPH stockpiles its waste in storage units behind the hospital where disinfection is done daily, Est
acion said.

Initially, the provincial government was looking for a ‘third party’ that would collect and dispose of the infectious wastes from the NOPH, she added, but the new shredder machine will now cover all types of hospital waste.

The cost of the machine was not immediately known, Estacion said.

Sagarbarria announced that the “medical city” will be inaugurated on May 17 when the province celebrates its 100th jubilee anniversary of the provincial capitol.

The medical city consists of three buildings spanning a huge area behind the NOPH that would cover the current Provincial Tourism Office and the Provincial Agriculture Office, which will be transferred to another location.

The project’s cost is pegged at PHP3 billion.

However, Estacion assured district hospitals in Bayawan City, Tanjay City, and Guihulngan City that they too will each get financial assistance worth PHP100 million for improvement of their current facilities.

Meanwhile, the National Historical Commission of the Philippines will put
up a marker at the Capitol during the jubilee anniversary, a day marked with several activities to highlight the celebration.

Source: Philippines News Agency

MADINAH, Hajj pilgrims who have the opportunity to visit the ‘Raudah’ at the Nabawi Mosque are advised not to get too excited and busy taking pictures so much so they forget to make prayers at one of the most blessed places to do so.

Lembaga Tabung Haji’s (TH) Madinah Ibadah (worship) manager Muhammad Fakhrur Ridzwan Othman said that the opportunity to enter the Raudah area should be utilised wisely by performing ‘solat sunat’ (prayers) and supplications as much as possible, since the time allowed for each pilgrim in the area was very limited.

“We understand the excitement, especially for pilgrims who enter for the first time and have smartphones; surely, they want to take pictures. It’s not that we don’t allow it, it’s possible… but the etiquette is first and foremost to perform solat sunat because it is Prophet Muhammad’s Mosque.

then supplicate as much as possible while we are inside Raudah because it is a blessed place for prayers. Then, at the end of the activity in Raudah, it is permissible for us
to take pictures,” he said in an interview with media personnel here recently.

He also reminded pilgrims to recite as much ‘salawat ‘or salutations to Prophet Muhammad as they could in the blessed place.

Tabung Haji (TH) had stated that it would strive to ensure that all 31,600 Malaysian Hajj pilgrims would get the opportunity to enter the Prophet’s tomb.

However, before that, all Hajj pilgrims must download the electronic ‘Nusuk’ application on their smartphones.

Apart from visiting the Raudah, TH also organises several other activities for Hajj pilgrims during their six days in Madinah, including visiting the tomb of the Prophet Muhammad SAW, visiting the Baqi cemetery, and outer visits involving tours to Quba Mosque, Qiblatain Mosque, Khandaq Mosque, and Mount Uhud, as well as date palm farms.

Source: BERNAMA News Agency