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Opinion

Amnesty and peace talks

The Marcos Jr. administration has taken a step in the right direction by granting amnesty to rebels, including the members of the Maoist-led New People’s Army still engaged in armed struggle in the countryside. This could lead to release of more than 800 rebels convicted of various crimes in pursuit …

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On alert for new pathogens

Comforting may not be enough a mask as the Department of Health remains on alert for new pathogens following an increase in influenza-like illnesses here, while a wave of respiratory diseases is hitting China. Health Undersecretary Eric Tayag has confirmed patients with flu-like symptoms, like high-grade fever, cough, cold, and …

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Front line of disaster

This week, on Thursday, world leaders and environmental experts start a 13-day summit dubbed COP28 climate conference in Dubai, the first time a pontiff will be at the meeting since the annual conferences began in Berlin in 1995. The 86-year-old head of the Catholic Church, expected to be in Dubai …

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Will Congress let the ICC in?

There’s going to be a monumental shift in official policy if the House of Representatives approves resolutions calling on government to allow the International Criminal Court to enter the country and investigate the Duterte administration’s bloody war on illegal drugs from 2016 to 2019. Last week, the joint committees on …

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Standing up to deforestation

Deforestation, recognized by forest experts as a serious global problem which has not excluded the Philippines, is denuding areas of tall, mostly evergreen trees. In 2010, the Philippines had 13.2 million hectares of natural forest, extending over 62 percent of its land area. By 2022, it lost 62.9 thousands of …

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Should we adopt nuke technology?

It’s been described as the fastest agreement on nuclear energy as it was signed after the conclusion of negotiations between the Philippines and the United States only a month before. We’re referring to “Agreement for Cooperation Concerning Peaceful Uses of Nuclear Energy,” or the so-called 123 Agreement, signed last November …

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No deal with Beijing on WPS

The bad news is that Chinese President Xi Jinping was non-committal when, at the sidelines of the recent APEC summit in San Francisco, President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. raised the issue of free access by our fisherfolk to our Exclusive Economic Zone in the West Philippine Sea. Those who expected the …

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Vigilance vs. flash floods

Meteorologists have raised a warning for people to be vigilant while experiencing rains due to the shear line and the northeast monsoon. Aircraft and ships are also forewarned with this wind shear phenomenon, the change in speed and direction of wind over a short distance, most often caused by microbursts …

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There’s still hope

Climate change, seen by storm chasers as an urgent threat to millions of lives, has become the most serious threat to life. But climatologists agree there are solutions and they are well understood. In 2015, world leaders signed a major treaty called the Paris agreement to put these into practice. …

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No one left behind

What can P670 million do? On the part of the legislative and executive branches of government, plenty. Working in tandem, the House of Representatives and the Department of Social Work and Community Development recently launched a program to distribute P670 million worth of financial and rice assistance to an initial …

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