News Roundup 28 October 2022
Oct 28, 2022 • 6 min Read
Heavy rain due to Tropical Storm Paeng leaves 31 dead | PHILSTAR.COM – Landslides and flooding killed 31 people as heavy rain from an approaching storm lashed the southern Philippines, a disaster official said Friday. The storm unleashed flash floods carrying uprooted trees, rocks and mud overnight in mainly rural communities around Cotabato, a city of 300,000 people on Mindanao island. Many residents were caught by surprise by the rapidly rising floodwaters, Naguib Sinarimbo, the spokesman and civil defence chief for the regional government, told AFP. “The water started entering the houses before dawn,” Sinarimbo said, confirming that the death toll in the storm-hit areas had risen to 31 from the earlier tally of 13. Rescuers retrieved 16 bodies from Datu Odin Sinsuat, 10 from Datu Blah Sinsuat and five from Upi town, he told reporters. Teams in rubber boats had to rescue some residents from rooftops, Sinarimbo added. Local filmmaker Remar Pablo told AFP he was shooting a beauty pageant in the town of Upi when the floodwaters suddenly came in after midnight and forced audience members to flee for safety. A row of cars sat half-submerged on the street outside, his clips showed. “We were stranded inside,” said Pablo, who eventually waded into the water to get home. Rescuers carried a baby in a plastic tub as they waded through chest-deep water, a photo posted by the provincial police showed. Reports from the Bangsamoro regional government, the Army’s 6th Infantry Division and local government units said the worst hit by flash floods are Maguindanao del Norte’s Upi, Sultan Kudarat, Datu Odin Sinsuat, Parang and Datu Blah Sinsuat towns. Responders from the Rapid Emergency Action on Disaster Incidence, or READi contingent of the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, personnel of units under the Army’s 6th ID and rescue teams from LGUs and the police have, until past 1:00 p.m. Friday, scrambling to relocate flood-stricken villagers to safe areas.
Red-tagging of Iloilo LGBT community leader by TV show hosts alarms CHR | INQUIRER.NET – The Commission on Human Rights (CHR) has expressed “deep concern” about the red-tagging of a leader of a Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer, Intersex (LGBTQI) community in Iloilo by the hosts of a television show. In a statement on Friday, the CHR said the allegation that Iloilo Pride Team chairperson Irish Inoceto is using LGBTQI issues to recruit members for the communist movement is dangerous as it adds to the community’s struggles. The CHR was referring to the alleged red-tagging of Inoceto by former National Task Force for Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC) spokesperson Lorraine Badoy and alleged former communist rebel Jeffrey Celiz. “The [CHR] expresses deep concern on the red-tagging of Irish Inoceto, the chairperson of the Iloilo Pride Team, by anchors Jeffrey ‘Ka Eric’ Celiz and Dr. Lorraine Marie Badoy, on the SMNI program ‘Laban kasama ang Bayan’ aired on 24 October 2022,” the CHR said in a statement.“In the said program, the anchors claimed that Inoceto is a member of the Communist Party of the Philippines and is using LGBTQI issues to recruit students of the Iloilo City National High School (ICNHS),” it added. The CHR said Bahaghari, a network of LGBTQI communities in the country, relayed that Inoceto helped ICNHS transgender students with grooming after the school enforced a haircut rule on students. “According to Bahaghari, a partner of the Iloilo Pride Team, it was the transgender students of the ICNHS who sought the help of Inoceto concerning the grooming policy of the school, which requires them to cut their hair. The group added that such policy causes the transgender students of the said school to ‘feel deep emotional distress’ and Inoceto is ‘providing them assistance in drafting gender-affirming policies,’” CHR said. “CHR continues to admonish against blanket labeling that endangers and threatens human rights defenders and advocates, including LGBTQI leaders, who endeavor to help address the concerns of their sector […] This kind of narrative only serves to perpetuate the already disadvantageous plight of the LGBTQI who frequently face stigma, discrimination, and gender-based violence in our society,” it added.
50K PH seafarers risk job loss on EU vessels | INQUIRER.NET – The deployment of new Filipino seafarers to European Union ships and the jobs of some 50,000 others now working on EU-flagged vessels are at risk should the Philippines still fail to comply with the International Convention on Standards of Training, Certification and Watchkeeping for Seafarers (STCW Convention), the House committee on overseas workers affairs learned in a hearing on Thursday. The committee was informed that the final evaluation by the European Maritime Safety Agency (Emsa) of the country’s STCW compliance is set in November, where the EU panel could withdraw recognition of Filipino seafarers’ qualifications to be deployed as officers on European vessels if it finds the concerns it raised years ago remain unresolved. The deployment of Filipino seafarers to Europe will automatically stop should the Emsa make a negative finding on the country’s compliance next month, and while those currently deployed on EU-flag ships would not lose their jobs immediately, they would be allowed to work as captains, first mates, and second mates only until their STCW certificates expire. According to Jerome Pampolina, assistant secretary for sea-based services at the Department of Migrant Workers (DMW), “the country has not been able to pass the Emsa audit since 2006, or for more than a decade,” adding that he was informed that this would be the final year for the Philippines to adopt corrective measures toward full compliance. “If the recognition is withdrawn, the Philippines will undergo a new round of evaluation and must satisfactorily comply with the findings before the recognition is restored. Meantime, Filipino officers and ratings (the general term for skilled seafarers) will no longer be qualified to be deployed in (EU-flagged) vessels that require such certifications (and) existing certifications will be honored until their expiration,” he pointed out. Citing data from the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas showing that Filipino seafarers send home $6.38 billion (P376.12 billion) every year, Pampolina said “this amount of remittances is also at risk should the country fail to meet the minimum global standards of maritime education, training and certification.”
Complacency
One in every five foreign seafarers on EU-flagged ships, mostly from Norway, Greece, Malta and Germany, is from the Philippines.Foreign Undersecretary for Migrant Workers’ Affairs Eduardo Jose de Vega lamented that the issue of Philippine compliance with the STCW “has dragged on for too long. Diplomacy has worked in the past in delaying our decertification, thus, the complacency.” De Vega said that the Department of Foreign Affairs intends to include the STCW in the topics for discussion when President Marcos flies to Brussels, Belgium, for a visit in late December. Maritime Industry Authority (Marina) officer in charge for the office of the executive director Samuel Batalla maintained that the agency, which is mandated to lead efforts for STCW compliance, was continuously working to address 23 discrepancies found by the Emsa in its 2020 audit. Batalla said that the Marina and the Commission on Higher Education were working to establish updated curricula for the bachelors of science on marine transportation and on marine engineering as well as training programs that would comply with the STCW. The Marina official pointed out that the 23 discrepancies earlier cited by the Emsa included the lack of facilities, equipment and simulators for training of seafarers as well as the absence of procedures for students who have completed their onboard training in the different maritime higher education institutions.
