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January 10-16, 2022
‘Lawmaker files Ayuda sa Bakuna Bill’
P15,000 for each vaccinated family
F
ULLY VACCINATED families may receive a onetime cash assistance worth P15,000 if House Bill Number 10644 filed by Quezon City Rep. Alfred Vargas is passed into law. Continue on page 2
Ramp up vax vs. Omicron AS THE Omicron variant continues to pose a threat to the healthcare
system capacities, the national government Continue on page 5
Increase in SUCs budget ‘phenomenal’ Indonesian prosecutors seek life for Bali bombing suspect DEPUTY SPEAKER Mujiv Hataman has branded as “phenomenal” the increase in the budget for state colleges and universities and it will benefit Basilan province following the signing by Continue on page 2
Deputy Speaker Mujiv Hataman (Image: Al Jacinto)
Boat registration, fishing gear licensing ipahigayon DIPOLOG CITY Gikatakdang ipahigayon na usab ang tinuig nga “mobile boat registration
ARMM
and fishing gear licensing” dinhi sa dakbayan sugod karong umaabot Enero 11 nga molungtad handtud
sa Pebrero 18 ning tuiga. Mao kini ang kalamboan nga nasayran gikan Continue on page 2
Eastern Mindanao
INDONESIAN PROSECUTORS demanded a life sentence for a top ter-
ror suspect who eluded capture for 18 years and accused him of master-
minding a series of deadly attacks in the world’s Continue on page 3
Special Forces battle to win hearts and minds in Sulu THE PHILIPPINES' Special Forces soldiers managed to lure two Abu Continue on page 3
A Special Forces photo shows the two Abu Sayyaf fighters following their recent surrender in Talipao town in Sulu province.
Western Mindanao
Cebu
Manila
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The Mindanao Examiner
January 10-16, 2022
‘Lawmaker files Ayuda sa Bakuna Bill’
P15,000 for each vaccinated family Continued from page 1 Vargas filed the proposed legislation also known as the “Ayuda sa Bakuna” bill to benefit those families whose households are fully inoculated against the deadly Covid-19 disease. If approved, the cash assistance program shall be under the Department of Social Welfare and Devel-
opment. The cash aid will largely help poor families and the vulnerable sectors of the society. “This (proposed law) includes senior citizens, persons with disabilities, and persons with comorbidities. The program will, however, cover all eligible Filipino families, as long as living and qualified
members have complied with the government’s prescribed vaccination program,” Vargas said. “This measure not only alleviates the sufferings of our fellow Filipinos in this two-year global pandemic, it also helps solve the problem by encouraging science-backed vaccination and accelerating our achievement of
Boat registration, fishing gear licensing ipahigayon Continued from page 1 sa lokal nga buhatan sa City Agriculture Office pinaagi ni Agriculturist Engr. Kerr Porlas. Sumala pa nga kining maong tinuig nga kalihokan ang dinha ipahigayon sa unom ka mga coastal barangays nga gilangkoban sa mga barangay sa Olingan, Galas, Miputak, Barra, Minaog ug Sicayab. Dugang ni Porlas, nga sama sa gihapon, kining maong kalihokan ang dinha ra gihapon ipahigayon sa nasangpit nga mga barangay, partikular dinha sa mga barangay hall, aron dili na mogasto pa sa pamasahe ang atong
mga kaigsoonang banca owners / operators alang ning maong katuyu-an. Dugang gipasabot sa tinubdang buhatan nga kining maong kalihokan maoy obligasyon sa atong mga kaigsoonang nanagiya og mga bangkang panagatan, bugti sa ilang pagpanag-iya sa maong panginabuhian nga gitakda sa atong balaod. Sama sa gihapon, ang mga nag-unang rekesitos nga gikinahanglan mao ang: Barangay clearance, cedula sa tag-iya, balidong ID, photocopy o printed copy sa hulagway sa mga mosunod: (gitakda sa Maritime), kinatibuk-ang
bangkang panagat, engine number sa bangka, ug 2 ka buok 2 x 2 ID photo (hulagway sa tag-iya). Subay sa pagpahigayon ning maong kalihokan, gi-awhagan kadtong nanag-iya og mga bangkang panagat sa pagpahimulos ning maong tinuig nga kalihokan pinaagi sa pag-andam na sa ilang mga rekesitos alang sa pagparehistro, aron dili sila kamultahan bunga sa kapakyas unya sa pagparehistro sa ilang mga bangka. Alang sa dugang inpormasyon mahimo silang magpakisayod lang didto sa ilang Barangay Hall, kalabot niini. (AFB)
herd immunity,” he added. The news of Vargas' bill went viral on social media and was welcomed by netizens. Last November, the Department of the Interior and Local Government proposed to withhold a portion of the benefits of Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program as one of several suggested measures to ramp up vaccination nationwide in order to reach herd immunity before 2021 ends. The DILG said based on the latest data from the DSWD, only 12% of the 4.4 million 4Ps beneficiaries nationwide have been vaccinated despite the various campaigns and interventions implemented by the government and the private sector. “Our proposal has never been to delist or remove a 4Ps beneficiary from the program but merely to withhold a portion of the benefit – the
health and nutrition grant – until such time that the individual has been vaccinated. The intention behind this proposal is sincere and clear: to boost the inoculation drive in order to rise above the COVID-19 nightmare and reach population protection as soon as possible. Nonetheless, we defer to the wisdom of the President if our suggested policy will be adopted or not,” the DILG said. The DILG also urged local governments to adopt other creative ways to change the minds of their constituents, including the 4Ps beneficiaries, from hesitancy to vaccine acceptance and willingness. This may be in the form of new incentives such as food or rice packs, raffle bonanza for the inoculated population, and one-stop shops offering a smorgasbord of government services to include vaccination, among oth-
ers, it added. “As we all know, the Covid-19 pandemic requires concerted action and cooperation from each and every citizen. The act of one has serious effects on the rest of the populace. It is the moral and ethical obligation of every Filipino to be vaccinated for us to be able to end this pandemic. In a public health emergency, the common good must prevail,” the DILG said. The proposal was trashed after it drew widespread criticisms from the public and lawmakers, and various civil groups calling it “anti-poor.” The 4Ps is a human development measure of the national government under the DSWD that provides conditional cash grants to the poorest of the poor, to improve the health, nutrition, and the education of children aged 0-18. (Mindanao Examiner)
Increase in SUCs budget ‘phenomenal’ Continued from page 1 President Rodrigo Duterte of the P5.2-trillion national budget for 2022. “The hike in the SUC’s budget is phenomenal - from P113.1 million separately approved by both houses of Congress, to P233.8 million during the bicam. The president signed the General Appropriations Act,” said Hataman, the sole lawmaker from Basilan, one of five provinces under the Muslim autonomous region. He said included in the budget is the “dramatic” increase in funds for Basilan State College. “Malugod kong ipinapaalam sa mga Basileños na higit pa sa doble ang itinaas ng pondo para sa ating Basilan State College bilang paghahanda sa napipinto nitong conversion para maging Basilan State University. Kami ay nagagalak at naisama sya sa national budget natin para sa 2022 para masimulan na ang pagbabago. Nagpapasalamat
ako sa ating mga kasama sa Kongreso sa napakagandang balita na ito,” he said. Hataman, who authored House Bill 7697 converting Basilan State College into a university, was passed on final reading in September 2020 and Duterte signed this into law last June 23. According to Hataman, for 2021, the approved budget for Basilan State College is P117.2 million. The proposed 2022 funds for Basilan State College in the Senate and the House of Representatives stood at P113.1 million, but this was revised in the bicameral conference committee to P233.8 million. And for 2019 and 2020, its budget amounted to P105.6 million and P105.1 million, respectively. “Simula na ito ng conversion ng Basilan State College para maging ganap na state university na. Mas madaming magaaral ang makikinabang,
mas malaki ang oportunidad sa pag-unlad. Mahaba pa ang tatahakin, pero tuloy-tuloy na ito,” Hataman said. At present, the Basilan State College has a Level I and II accreditation from the Accrediting Agency of Chartered Colleges and Universities in the Philippines and even offers a Doctorate in Education Major in Education Administration, Masters in Public Administration and Masters of Arts in Education. Hataman said one Basilan State College becomes a university, it has the mandate to provide advance education, higher technological, professional and vocational courses, and training in arts and sciences, education, agriculture and industrial fields, management, criminology, maritime, medical education, legal education, non-traditional courses and other relevant fields of study. (Mindanao Examiner)
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The Mindanao Examiner
January 10-16, 2022
Indonesian prosecutors seek life for Bali bombing suspect
Special Forces battle to win hearts and minds in Sulu Continued from page 1 Sayyaf fighters to return to the fold of the law in the southern province of Sulu where security forces are now engaged not in armed campaign, but in winning the hearts and minds of the locals in an effort to eradicate violent extremism. Operators from the 6th Special Forces Company and Operational Detachments 14201 and 1403 of the 2nd Special Forces Battalion under Lt. Col. Benito Ramos Jr are currently conducting so-called “Mass Base Operations” and Community Support Programs to win popular support from villagers. Mass Base Operations is a peculiar capability of Special Forces units and is conducted in challenging areas to enable a conducive environment favorable to government forces. It denies the enemy critical resources and isolates them from mass support, attacking critical vulnerabilities that empowers the enemy’s capabilities. With this, the Special Forces convinced two Abu Sayyaf militants - Sibakkal Salahuddin, 66; and Isbain
Sakilan, 49 - to surrender peacefully in Talipao town. The duo and their weapons were presented to Brig. Gen. Eugenio Boguio, commander of the 1101st Infantry Brigade in Upper Sinuman village. The village chieftain Awang Mangking was also instrumental in helping the military identify Abu Sayyaf members in Upper Sinumaan. Both militants said they were forced to join the secessionist Abu Sayyaf group in 2000 to protect their families from rido or clan war. The military also released a statement purportedly made by Salahuddin during debriefing as saying: “Mas maganda na mag balik-loob kami (sa pamahalaan) para wala na kaming ibang iniisip. Nakita at naramdaman na rin namin ang tulong na ginawa sa amin ng mga sundalo. Katulong na namin sila ngayon sa pag gawa ng mga bahay at kabuhayan namin.” Boguio said the two men are now benefiting from the “Balik-Barangay Program, a joint effort of the Talipao Municipal Task Force to End Local Armed
Conflict and military units under the Joint Task Force-Sulu. “Through the conduct of development efforts, we are looking forward to eventually rendering the Abu Sayyaf group irrelevant in our area of operations. Together with the municipality of Talipao, the 1101st Infantry Brigade will be steadfast in promoting peace and development for our Tausug brothers and sisters,” Boquio said. Sulu has previously declared the Abu Sayyaf and its supporters as “persona non grata” and Gov. Sakur Tan ordered the creation of the Provincial and Municipal Task Forces to End Local Armed Conflict in support of the government peace and development efforts in the South. The total number of Abu Sayyaf fighters who surrendered in Sulu the past decade was not immediately available, but based on military press releases this may have reached thousands and most of them were either living peacefully as civilians or working alongside soldiers as government militias. (Mindanao Examiner)
Continued from page 1 most populous Muslim nation. Aris Sumarsono, 58, whose real name is Arif Sunarso but is better known as Zulkarnaen, sat impassively as the prosecution announced the sentencing demand before a panel of three judges in East Jakarta District Court in a session that was held remotely due to the coronavirus pandemic. Police and prosecutors say Zulkarnaen is the former military commander of Jemaah Islamiyah, a Southeast Asian militant group with ties to al-Qaida. The group is widely blamed for attacks including the 2002 bombings on the Indonesian resort island of Bali that killed 202 people, mostly foreign tourists, as well as attacks in the Philippines. Zulkarnaen had eluded capture for 18 years after being named a suspect in the October 2002 suicide bombings of Paddy’s Pub and the Sari Club in Bali. He was arrested last year in Lampung, a province on the southern tip of Sumatra. Police were tipped off to his hideout after interrogating several suspected militants arrested in earlier raids. Zulkarnaen argued that he was a leader of the network’s military wing but was not involved in the operation of the Bali bombings, as he was focused on organizing his squad for sectarian conflicts in Ambon and Poso and in the southern Philippines. During his trial, which began in September, other convicted militants in the 2002 Bali bombings, including Umar Patek and Ali Imron, who were sentenced to 20 years and life in jail, respectively, supported Zulkarnaen’s claim, saying he knew about the plot but did not play a role in its operation. The sentencing demand was initially scheduled for Nov. 24 but was postponed several times. State prosecutor Agus Tri told the court that Zulkarnaen’s acts had resulted in deaths and injuries and that there was no rea-
Aris Sumarsono, also known as Zulkarnaen, is a U.S.- and U.N.- designated terrorist and high-ranking member of Jemaah Islamiyah. (Image: Counter Extremism Project) son for leniency. “The defendant was involved in the Bali bombings plan,” he told the court. “He also instructed his group’s special forces led by him to save Jemaah Islamiyah’s assets, including weapons and explosives.” Police previously said Zulkarnaen masterminded church attacks that occurred simultaneously in many Indonesian regions on Christmas and New Year’s Eve in 2000 that killed more than 20 people. He was also the mastermind of a bomb attack on the official residence of the Philippine ambassador in Jakarta in 2000 that killed two people, and the architect of sectarian conflict in Ambon and Poso from 1998 to 2000. Conflicts between Christians and Muslims in Ambon, the provincial capital of the Molluca islands, left more than 5,000 people dead and half a million displaced. The Muslim-Christian conflict in Poso, known as a hotbed of Islamic militancy on Indonesia’s Sulawesi island, killed at least 1,000 people from 1998 to 2002. Zulkarnaen, a biologist who was among the first Indonesian militants to go to Afghanistan in the 1980s for training, was an instructor at a military academy there for seven years, Indonesian police said.
Since May 2005, Zulkarnaen has been listed on an al-Qaida sanctions list by the U.N. Security Council for being associated with Osama bin Laden or the Taliban. The Security Council said that Zulkarnaen, who became an expert in sabotage, was one of al-Qaida’s representatives in Southeast Asia and one of the few people in Indonesia who had had direct contact with bin Laden’s network. It said that Zulkarnaen led a squad of fighters known as the Laskar Khos, or Special Force, whose members were recruited from among some 300 Indonesians who trained in Afghanistan and the Philippines. Zulkarnaen was appointed the head of Camp Saddah, a military academy in the southern Philippines established for fighters from Southeast Asia, the Security Council said. He spent a decade at the camp training other Jemaah Islamiyah members. He became operations chief for Jemaah Islamiyah after the arrest of his predecessor, Encep Nurjaman, also known as Hambali, in Thailand in 2003. The United States’ “Rewards for Justice” program had offered a bounty of up to $5 million for his capture. He was the only Indonesian on the list. (Niniek Karmini / AP)
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The Mindanao Examiner
January 10-16, 2022
Sulu Pictures in the News Sulu provincial government at work. This is where your taxes go. (Photos from the Office of the Provincial Governor, Jaques Tutong, Task Force Covid-19, Maimbung Municipal Government, Rep. Shernee Tambut, Noenyrie Asiri, and Aziz Salapuddin)
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The Mindanao Examiner
January 10-16, 2022
Ramp up vax vs. Omicron
Acting Presidential spokesman Karlo Nograles and Dr. Edsel Maurice Salvana
OCD dispatches team to CARAGA
Members of the team from the Western Mindanao Regional Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council are deployed in CARAGA region to help assess the damage left behind by the calamity, especially in Surigao del Norte province and Dinagat Islands. PAGADIAN CITY – A team from the Western Mindanao Regional Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council has deployed a team of experts to the CARAGA region which was devastated by Super Typhoon Odette (Rai) to help assess the damage left behind by the calamity, especially in Surigao del Norte province and Dinagat Islands and formulate the rehabilitation and recovery programs. The team, led by Elmer Pabilan, the Assistant Chief of the Rehabilitation and Recovery Manage-
ment Section of the Office of the Civil Defence in Western Mindanao, is composed of personnel from the following the National Economic and Development Authority, Department of Labor and Employment, Department of Public Works and Highways, Department of Social Welfare and Development, Department of Human Settlements and Urban Development, Department of Agriculture, Mines and Geosciences Bureau, Department of the Interior and Local Government, Technical
Education And Skills Development Authority, Center for Disaster Preparedness, Zamboanga del Sur Provincial Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Office, and Zamboanga del Norte’s Salug and Liloy Municipal Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Offices. Lawyer Ruel Halanes, OCD Western Mindanao Officer-in-Charge, said the team will stay in CARAGA until the end of the month. He said the OCD also provided the team with various supplies such as cell phone cards, bags, tumblers, hammocks, sleeping bags, rain suits, portable stoves, medicines, survival kits and a generator set. “Post-disaster needs assessment is a multi-sectoral and multi-disciplinary structured approach for assessing disaster impacts and prioritizing recovery and reconstruction needs. It is undertaken by the government agencies in collaboration with international development partners and the private sector,” Halanes said. (Kimberly Amor)
Continued from page 1 underscored the need to ramp up vaccination across the country as the National Capital Region and its neighboring provinces registered a sharp increase in the number of Covid-19 cases. Acting Presidential spokesman Karlo Nograles urged other regions to step up their vaccination efforts to cushion the impact of Omicron and other variants to the country’s healthcare capacity, as seen in the NCR. “Let us take advantage of increasing the vaccination in the regional areas. While we’re seeing a surge here in Metro Manila at yung mga kalapit na probinsya dito, we have to push for more vaccinations happening in the other regions,” Nograles said. “We need to step up yung vaccination in other regions so that if Omicron or whatever variant goes and spreads dun sa mga regions, then we won’t see an overwhelming number of cases happening in the hospitals,” he added. Nograles also pointed out that even if fully vaccinated, people should still avoid getting infected so as not to overwhelm healthcare capacities, including overwhelming the healthcare workers. “Ayaw rin po natin na mataas ang hawaan kase ayaw rin po natin ma-overwhelm ang ating healthcare capacities, and that most importantly involves not getting our healthcare workers overwhelmed with so much work and cases that they have to take care of,” he said. Nograles reiterated the importance of getting vaccinated, saying, all vaccines are safe, effective, and given for free. “The numbers clearly show how these can prevent serious cases of Covid-19; 85% po of Covid patients in our ICUs ay mga unvaccinated. Kaya malaking tulong ang bakuna para maprotektahan tayo laban sa Covid-19 at mga variant nito. Malinaw po ang ebidensya: ito ang ating pinakamabisang armas kontra Covid-19,” he explained. According to the data from the National Covid-19 Vaccination Dashboard, more than 110 million doses have been administered nationwide. Of the target population for vaccination, 79.42% or 61,260,924 have already received a first dose, while 65.63% of the target popula-
tion are fully vaccinated. “Our experience with Covid-19 has shown us that we can contain this disease with prompt, decisive, and measured action on the part of the national government, our local government units, communities, our families, and ourselves, as individuals. This allowed us to overcome the threat posed by the Delta variant, and this will allow us to overcome the challenges posed by the Omicron variant,” Nograles said. Infectious disease specialist Dr. Edsel Maurice Salvana also emphasized that although Omicron may be associated with milder symptoms for those who are fully vaccinated, it can still lead to severe or critical disease for the unvaccinated. In fact, he said that as much as 85% of people in the hospital who are sick with Covid-19 are unvaccinated, while up to 93% of those who die of the disease are unvaccinated. “This is getting out of hand. Everyone is testing positive. Fortunately most are mild as long as they are vaccinated. If this keeps up, sooner or later we're all going to have some sort of exposure and we might all end up quarantining,” he said in a Facebook post, adding he is likely to shut down his physical clinic for now to protect his staff. “(Wear face) Shield, (face) mask, (observe physical) distance, and (have) ventilation at all times. If I do end up in quarantine again, it'll actually be a break for me. But until then, we all need to keep taking care of all these people in the hospital. Healthcare workers who aren't sick are getting overloaded. We need to protect all our HCWs from further exposure. If too many of us get exposed or sick, the whole system will shut down. Please be honest when seeing us about your symptoms and your exposure.” “If you are symptomatic, don't force a physical outpatient visit. Do telemed. If you are short of breath, please go to the ER. Inform your LGU if you are ill so they can contact trace properly. Yes it is inconvenient, but it will save lives. Work from home if you can. Please help us take care of you. We can't do that if we are sick or quarantined ourselves. Let's all do the right thing to protect one another. Stay safe,” he wrote on his social media page. (Mindanao Examiner)
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The Mindanao Examiner
January 10-16, 2022
Groups urge stronger anti-asbestos policy THE TRADE Union Congress of the Philippines and the Ecowaste Coalition urged the government to modify and improve the country’s 21year old asbestos policy regulation to protect the public. They said the moribund Chemical Control Order for Asbestos issued by the Department of Environment and Natural Resources on January 6, 2000 needs serious improvement in its mandate to protect in the light of its passive enforcement, growing non-compliance to the regulation, and the unfettered importation into the country of raw asbestos and materials and products containing asbestos. The groups also noted that the World Health Organization and the International Agency for Research on Cancer have long considered all types of asbestos, including the most common chrysotile or white asbestos, as carcinogens. Health experts have said no safe level can be proposed for asbestos because a threshold is not known to exist. The most common diseases caused by asbestos exposure are asbestosis, lung and ovary cancer, scarring of the lung lining, and mesothelioma. While banning the use of amosite (brown) and crocidolite (blue) asbestos, the CCO allows, controls and regulates the use of chrysotile (white) asbestos on fire proof clothing, roofing felts, cement roofing and flat sheet, friction materi-
als, gaskets, mechanical packing materials, highgrade electrical paper, battery separators, and other high-density products. However, the CCO prohibits all forms of asbestos on toys, pipe and boiler lagging, low density jointing compounds, corrugated commercial paper, and untreated textiles. The CCO also requires importers and manufacturers to register with the Environmental Management Bureau, secure importation clearance, and submit annual reports, among other requirements. It also mandates the labeling of asbestos and asbestos containing materials in structures, construction, demolition and disposal of asbestos, as well as in the packaging of asbestos and asbestos-containing products. However, both groups are concerned with poor compliance to the CCO on the part of businesses and passive enforcement on the part of the government, including the environmental and customs authorities. “We no longer see labels on asbestos containing products. And we don't see warning signage that forewarn the people and keep communities from hazards of asbestos dust exposure in demolition and disposal of asbestos. The compliance to and enforcement of CCO are long gone. Our fear is that many workers and their families may have been exposed already and its effects will only manifest a few years
later,” said TUCP President Raymond Mendoza. Mendoza said there is also a need to revise the CCO for asbestos, including banning chrysotile asbestos, in the light of a proliferation in local markets of unlabelled asbestos containing products particularly wire gauzes used in private and public schools laboratories, the widespread use of a baby talc powder reportedly laced with asbestos and the widely sold household ironing sheets. “We can strengthen the CCO by expanding the ban to cover all forms of asbestos, phasing out asbestos-containing products, and by promoting the commercial use of safer alternatives to this carcinogenic material. All stakeholders, including workers, communities and local governments, need to be involved in raising citizens’ awareness on this public health issue and in the conduct of sustained monitoring and surveillance on asbestos exposure,” said Thony Dizon, Chemical Safety Campaigner, EcoWaste Coalition. The TUCP is the country’s biggest federation of labor unions with members comprising both formal and informal workers in the private and public sectors. The EcoWaste Coalition is a network of public interest groups advocating for a zero waste and toxics-free society where communities enjoy a healthy and safe environment. (Malou Cablinda and Mark Navales contributed to this report.)
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January 10-16, 2022
The Mindanao Examiner
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Sulu Pictures in the News
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The Mindanao Examiner
January 10-16, 2022
Across : 1. House additions 5. Pear type 9. Heavy weight 12. Winter garment 13. Lingerie edging 14. Meadow mama 15. Housewife 17. Grant’s opponent 18. Wagner works 19. Resound 21. Wind dir. 22. Plaid 28. Liberate 29. Brewery product 30. Leading actors 32. Little white ___ 33. Soft drink (2 wds.) 35. Lobe locale 36. Paring tool 37. Tennis unit 40. Strike 41. Wrinkle 45. Filbert, e.g. 47. Practice session 49. Physicians’ group (abbr.) 50. Eve’s garden 51. Rocker ___ Young 52. Buddy 53. Round roof 54. Shopper’s delight
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Down : 1. Canyon effect 2. Roller coaster feature 3. Gold fabric 4. Strict 5. Unenthused 6. Hardwood tree 7. Royal staff 8. Breakfast foods 9. Blabbermouth 10. Be beholden to 11. Once named 16. Adult male 20. Common verb 23. China’s continent 24. ___-do-well 25. Struggle for breath 26. Lotion ingredient 27. Statue base
BARMMͳCENTRAL MINDANAO COTABATO CITY
28. Knock sharply 30. Harpooned 31. Underwater weapon 34. “___ Night Long” 37. Spectacle 38. Pitcher’s stat 39. Coastal birds 42. Cruising 43. Go by ship 44. she, in Bordeaux 45. Brief sleep 46. ___ Thurman of “Pulp Fiction” 48. Dress edge
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The Mindanao Examiner
January 10-16, 2022
Trust Me, I’m A Journalist by Sharon Moshavi
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EING A journalist right now is not easy. You face daily menace and harassment from every corner: repressive governments and would-be autocrats, abusive Tweets and Facebook posts, as well as physical threats and an unprecedented risk of being killed for your work. Add to that the chronic stress of working in an industry bedeviled by existential financial crisis. The reward for coping with all this? Hardly anybody trusts you. According to the 2021 Edelman Trust Barometer Spring Update: A World in Trauma, trust in traditional news media is at a record low (though trust in social media is even lower). While the public’s trust in most institutions (including government and NGOs) isn’t strong, its faith in news media is even feebler. You know it’s bad when people say politicians are more credible sources than us journalists. Increased political polarization and a swamp of disinformation deserve much of the blame, it is true. Increasingly, journalists aren’t viewed as independent voices, but perceived to have hidden agendas, making them either “with us or against us.” Meanwhile, factbased news is competing for attention with rage-inducing, button-pushing disinformation. Some “bad actors” are actively targeting journalists’ credibility— and too often succeeding, thanks to the enabling environment of today’s social media ecosystem. Case in point: Intrepid 2021 Nobel Peace Prize winning Filipino-American journalist Maria Ressa. My organization, the International Center for Journalists, working with the University of Sheffield and Ressa’s Rappler news site, recently conducted a forensic analysis of hundreds of thousands of social media attacks against Ressa over the past five years. Nearly 60% of these attacks were specifically designed to undermine her professional credibility and, by extension, public trust in her journalism. What can be done to reverse this hostile tide? Better self-regulation by the social media platforms would help, as might other policy interventions— though there is currently little consensus about what these might be, and many journalists worry that government actions ostensibly designed to help the media often end up doing the opposite. That is why many journalists believe the best strategy is simply to “put your head down and do your job.” I don’t believe that’s good enough. It is time for a fundamental rethink of journalism, from how it is produced and distributed to how it interacts with audiences to how we measure impact. Restoring trust requires numerous actions, large and small, that journalists and the organizations that still employ them can take. Think of the suggestions that follow not as some kind of shovel-ready blueprint for change, but rather as an initial exploration of possible steps that might make a difference. R ET HI NKI NG REP RETHINKING REPORTING ORT I NG One suggestion comes from an unexpected source: Pope Francis. The pontiff recently articulated a vision for journalism that speaks directly to rebuilding a culture of trust. The journalist’s mission, he said, is “to explain the world, to make it less dark, to make those who live there fear it less and look at others with greater awareness, and also with more confidence.” In other words, don’t stop at uncovering dark doings; supply the light, too. Many journalists, of course, are already doing plenty of both. They reveal the “dark doings” by helping bring down corrupt governments in Slovakia, uncovering human trafficking rings in Nigeria, and documenting an escalating hunger crisis in Afghanistan. They also provide some light, reporting on the lives of people in São Paulo’s most under-resourced and under-covered communities, on successful voter turnout efforts in the Navajo Nation, on what countries can learn from Estonia on cybersecurity, and on and on. Without cutting back on essential investigative journalism that exposes problems, are there other smart ways media organizations can figure out how to do more reporting on solutions? And how else can newsrooms evolve their coverage to be more relevant to readers? A few suggestions: • Fight disinformation head on. Newsrooms could take a more holistic approach to covering disinformation, scrutinizing the “Infodemic” the same way they’ve tackled every aspect of the COVID-19 pandemic. They can ferret out the figures behind disinformation campaigns, and regularly report stories like this, uncovered by researchers, that found that just 12 Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram accounts were behind the majority of misinformation across the platforms on COVID-19 vaccines. Imagine if newsrooms did this kind of work on a regular basis, identifying misinformation pathogens as they crop up, rather than waiting for them to spread. News outlets could team up regularly with researchers and think tanks with the computing and analytics power to identify such social media trends. • Connect better with audiences. Research shows that people engage with news more when a piece of journalism answers the question all readers often instinctively ask: “What does this mean for me?” Why not do more stories that take a big issue and bring it down to its impact on a community and less horse-race style political coverage? One example: Code for Africa, a civic engagement organization, regularly launches data-driven projects that, for example, help people calculate the gender pay gap in any African country, or see competing prices for medications at pharmacies near them. • Put trust in the frame. In every story, journalists should ask themselves, “How can I approach this piece in a way that helps people trust it?” That may include highlighting solutions instead of just problems; including a diversity of voices; and directly involving the audience in the piece — by crowdsourcing community input, for instance. EDI T FOR T EDIT TRANSPARENCY RANSPARENC Y Few outside journalism really know how news is produced. This opacity contributes to suspicions about journalists’ bias. The “story behind the story” offerings by some news outlets (like the New York Times Insider) are a step in the right direction. Media organizations should consider going further by: • Better distinguishing opinion from straight news. As opinion pieces and news analyses have proliferated across all types of news outlets, so have more opportunities for audience confusion. In a 2018 study, just 43% of people said they could easily distinguish news from opinion on Twitter and Facebook. • Sign on to efforts such as The Trust Project, a consortium that has developed a series of eight “Trust Indicators” that news organizations can use to show who and what is behind a news story. Research by the University of Texas at Austin found the indicators improve a news outlet’s credibility. The indicators audiences paid most
attention to were “the description of why the story was written (noticed by 44%) and information about the Trust Project (noticed by 43%).” The project, which launched in 2017, has just 200 media partners worldwide to date. 2022 should see that number grow much higher. • Measure and communicate the impact of news. Following up on a story’s impact makes good editorial sense, whether it’s a big investigative piece, or a purely local story about some ordinary problem. A Brazilian outlet, Gazeta do Povo, attempted to do just that a couple of years ago, producing an impact newsletter for its audience. A citizen journalism effort in India, CGNet Swara, has tracked hundreds of tangible impacts of its reporting (electricity turned on, teachers paid) and lets its audience know. I T ’S THE IT T HE DISTRIBUTION, DI ST RI BU TI ON, STUPID ST U PI D In today’s social media dominated world, controlling how content is distributed has become a complex challenge that many news organizations struggle to meet. Research from the Reuters Institute shows, not surprisingly, that news is less trusted when seen on disinformation-infested social media platforms. The media has tried to respond with push notifications and newsletters galore, reaching readers through their phones and inboxes. That’s a start. But journalism needs to work more creatively to figure out other ways to gain more control over distribution of its product. For instance: • Create consortia. We’ve seen great editorial collaborations like the Panama and Pandora Papers. But there are other types of collaborations, ones focused on distribution and co-branding, that could help build better connections with readers. These might take the form of experiments like the Ohio Local News Initiative that is banding together small outlets and community groups across the state under a single umbrella. Or the effort by Switzerland’s largest media companies to create a single log-in for all their sites to reclaim a direct connection with readers. Initiatives like these could also yank audiences out of their own echo chambers and direct them to new sources of information. Or consider #FactsMatter, which brings together fact-checkers and news organizations in Nigeria with social media influencers (i.e. trusted messengers) to help get the accurate news they produce to larger audiences. • Think big. News organizations came late to the digital age and have been playing catch-up ever since. Yet a few journalistic mavericks were actually ahead of their time. Roger Fidler, at the now-defunct Knight Ridder, invented the tablet in the 1990s, 15 years before Steve Jobs, but newsrooms were too fat and happy to pay attention. We need to reignite that sort of innovative spirit — and this time, back the big ideas it generates. We don’t yet know what will be the Next Big Thing. What we do know is that the time for complacency is long over. Whatever you think of these specific ideas, the overall thrust should be clear: Strengthening journalistic credibility cannot be an afterthought, something that news media turn to after doing the “real work.” This is the real work for news organizations and those of us who value and support them. Trust needs to sit squarely in the center of every aspect of the journalistic enterprise, from reporting and editing to marketing and distribution. The stakes are high. Journalism faces not only a crisis of trust but an existential financial crisis as well. Yet people are much more likely to pay for news that they trust. Solve one crisis, and you might just solve the other. (The author is the president of the International Center for Journalists, a nonprofit that empowers an unparalleled global network of journalists to produce news reports that lead to better governments, stronger economies, more vibrant societies and healthier lives.)
HEALTH
Fatty Liver Ni Dr. Willie T. Ong
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ng fatty liver ay isang kondisyon kung saan nababalot ng taba ang atay. Kung may fatty liver ka, kadalasan ay mataas din ang iyong kolesterol sa dugo, blood sugar at uric acid. Malamang ay sobra ka din sa timbang at malaki ang tiyan. Sa umpisa ay walang sintomas ang fatty liver. May ibang tao na sumasakit ang kanang bahagi ng tiyan. Ngunit kapag umabot sa liver cirrhosis ay malala na ito at magkakaroon na ng paninilaw ng mata, pamamayat, paglaki ng tiyan at pagmamanas ng paa. Malalaman na may fatty liver ang pasyente sa pamamagitan ng Ultrasound ng atay o Ultrasound of the Whole Abdomen. Minsan ay lumalala ang fatty liver at umaabot sa pamamaga
ng atay at liver cirrhosis. Para maagapan ang fatty liver, sundin ang mga payong ito: 1. Itigil ang pag-inom ng alak. Kahit isang patak ng wine, beer or hard drinks ay huwag nang subukan pa. Ihinto na rin ang paninigarilyo. 2. Magpapayat kung sobra ka sa timbang. Kapag nagbawas ka ng timbang, puwedeng mabawasan din ang taba sa iyong atay. 3. Umiwas sa pagkain ng matataba (oily) at matatamis na pagkain. Limitahan ang pagkain ng cake, mantikilya, ice cream at karneng baboy at baka. Umiwas o bawasan na rin ang pag-inom ng matatamis na inumin tulad ng soft drinks at iced tea. 4. Kumain ng masustansyang pagkain tulad ng maberdeng gulay at isda. Puwedeng kumain ng prutas pero huwag din sosobrahan ito dahil ito’y matamis din. 5. Gumalaw-galaw at
mag-ehersisyo. Kapag nabawasan ang taba sa iyong katawan, mababawasan din ang taba sa atay. 6. Kung ikaw ay may diabetes, gamutin ito sa tulong ng iyong doktor. 7. Kung mataas ang iyong kolesterol sa dugo, ibaba ito sa pamamagitan ng diyeta at gamot. 8. Kumain ng yogurt. Ayon sa isang pagsusuri, may tulong ang good bacteria ng yogurt sa paggamot sa fatty liver. Hindi pa ito tiyak pero pwede ninyong subukan. 9. Huwag basta-bastang uminom ng kahit anong tableta, supplements o vitamins. Huwag maniwala sa mga sabi-sabi. Itanong muna sa iyong doktor kung makasasama ba ito sa atay. Sadyang dyeta, exercise at paggamot sa diabetes at mataas na kolesterol ang lunas sa fatty liver. Alagaan natin ang ating atay.
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The Mindanao Examiner
January 10-16, 2022
January 10-16, 2022
The Mindanao Examiner
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