News Roundup 19 March 2023
Mar 19, 2023 • 4 min Read
UP-MSI: More oil spill might reach Calapan City in next 3 days | INQUIRER.NET – CITY OF CALAPAN – The University of the Philippines – Marine Science Institute (UP-MSI), in its latest bulletin on Saturday night (March 18), said that more oil spill is expected to reach this city’s shores in three days.
“Oil spill trajectories for March 16 to 22 show northward shift with Calapan possibly receiving most of the oil from March 20 to 22,” said the bulletin.
The UP-MSI said the latest satellite image on March 15 “shows that the oil is still leaking out of the sunken vessel (MT Princess Empress).”
“Westward currents along the coast of northern Mindoro towards the Verde Island Passage are forecasted to be more pronounced for this period. The ‘Amihan’ (north east monsoon) winds, which contained most of the oil to the coasts of Naujan and Pola in the previous weeks, are now more variable, allowing the oil to spread northwards,” the agency said.
The UP-MSI said stopping the seepage of oil from the tanker that sank Feb. 28 should be a priority “before the end of the amihan season, otherwise more critical biodiversity areas along the Verde Island Passage may be affected.”
Full Story at: UP-MSI: More oil spill might reach Calapan City in next 3 days | Inquirer News
Don’t typecast women cops, Hontiveros tells NCRPO | INQUIRER.NET – MANILA, Philippines — Senator Risa Hontiveros on Sunday told the National Capital Region Police Office (NCRPO) not to typecast and limit what women can do in the police force, stressing that they can go beyond the desk.
To recall, NCRO previously announced its plans to replace male police officers from front-desk duty with female counterparts, claiming that it is because the latter are more patient and sympathetic. The female desk officers will be called “customer relations officers,” according to NCRPO director Maj. Gen. Edgar Alan Okubo.
“Laging nakakabuti na magdagdag tayo ng kababaihan sa kahit anong organisasyon, lalo na sa ating kapulisan na alam nating male-dominated. Sana nga lang ay hindi i-’type cast’ o limitahan ng posisyong ‘customer relations’ ang ating mga babaeng pulis,” said Hontiveros.
(It is always good to add women to any organization, especially in our police force which we know is male-dominated. I just hope that our female police officers will not be typecast or limited by the customer relations position.)
Hontiveros then cited a case where a female officer arrested a wanted pedophile.
Full Story at: Don’t typecast women cops, Hontiveros tells NCRPO | Inquirer News
Probers see loopholes in CIDG ‘hulidap’ ops | PHILSTAR.COM – MANILA, Philippines — Probers have seen irregularities in the raid conducted by the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG) who were relieved from their posts on Thursday over allegations of “hulidap” or robbery and extortion of a group of Chinese businessmen in Parañaque City, an official said on Friday.
Brig. Gen. Warren de Leon, Integrity Monitoring and Enforcement Group director, said IMEG investigators noticed loopholes in the operation of the 12 policemen from the CIDG’s National Capital Region (NCR) field unit.
The IMEG was ordered to investigate the police officers who were involved in the incident on March 13 in Barangay Tambo.
Speaking to reporters, De Leon said among the glaring errors was when the policemen barged into a house where 13 Chinese were playing mahjong without a search warrant.
“Umakyat daw sa bakod kaya walang consent nung may-ari (They climbed over the fence, so there was no consent from the owner),” he said.
De Leon said the situation could have been different if the Chinese had been playing on the street and not in a house.
Investigators also discovered the policemen had no pre-operational plan for the raid.
“Walang pre-ops kaya maraming butas ang operation nito (No pre-ops so the operation had many loopholes),” De Leon said.
Due to the allegations of irregularities involving his men, Col. Hansel Marantan was also relieved as head of the CIDG-NCR.
Full Story at: Probers see loopholes in CIDG ‘hulidap’ ops | Philstar.com
How AI could upend the world even more than electricity or the internet | PHILSTAR.COM – SAN FRANCISCO, United States — The rise of artificial general intelligence — now seen as inevitable in Silicon Valley — will bring change that is “orders of magnitude” greater than anything the world has yet seen, observers say. But are we ready?
AGI — defined as artificial intelligence with human cognitive abilities, as opposed to more narrow artificial intelligence, such as the headline-grabbing ChatGPT — could free people from menial tasks and usher in a new era of creativity.
But such a historic paradigm shift could also threaten jobs and raise insurmountable social issues, experts warn.
Previous technological advances from electricity to the internet ignited powerful social change, says Siqi Chen, chief executive of San Francisco startup Runway.
“But what we’re looking at now is intelligence itself… This is the first time we’re able to create intelligence itself and increase its amount in the universe,” he told AFP.
Full Story at: How AI could upend the world even more than electricity or the internet | Philstar.com
