News from the Philippines. Dengvaxia Case is Not Over. Motion to Dismiss is junked. US Fuel Transfer from Hawaii sparks Furor. Philippines-US EDCA Agreement might add to South Sea Tensions. Filipino

skilled migrants sought by Germany and Australia. Student PISA Ranking in bottom 10. Charter Change signatures being bought? All is well and good in the Philippines!

THE DENGVAXIA CASE CONTINUES WITH THE COURT’S JUNKING OF MOTION TO DISMISS

Dengvaxia is not over. The Sandiganbayan¹ (equivalent to court of appeals with jurisdiction over criminal and civil cases involving government employee graft and corruption), has rejected Garin’s motion to dismiss the cases against her.

MILITARY FUEL TRANSFER FROM HAWAII TO PHILIPPINES TRIGGERS CONCERNS ON REGIONAL STABILITY

The US military has been found to be shipping clean fuel from Hawaii to the Philippines. While the Philippines Department of Defense (DND) denies any knowledge of the fuel transfer, claiming that it is purely a commercial transaction, Senator Imee Marcos is calling for an explanation.

Concerns are raised on whether the yet to be explained transfer could add fuel to the simmering fire of ongoing tensions between Philippines and China over territorial rights. Is the large (now apparently halted) delivery of naval fuel to be used for peacetime activities? The Philippines would clearly be a target in case of any conflict between the US and China due to the US military bases that are housed in the Philippines under the EDCA (Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement).

ENHANCED DEFENSE COOPERATION AGREEMENT (EDCA)

The EDCA agreement between the Philippines and the US was signed in 2014 as a supplemental agreement to the previous Visiting Forces Agreement. The agreement allows the United States to rotate troops into the Philippines for extended stays and allows the United States to build and operate facilities on Philippine bases for both American and Philippine forces. However, the EDCA is also very clear that EDCA provides that the access and use of Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) facilities by the US military will be “at the invitation of the Philippines and with full respect for the Philippine Constitution and Philippine laws,” and that the US cannot have any permanent military presence or set up any permanent bases in the Philippines. 2014 Q&A link is provided below for anyone interested.

In early 2023 the EDCA was expanded with agreement to accelerate implementation with the agreement to designate 4 new locations in addition to the original and completed original 5 locations, to give a total of 9 Philippine bases that the US can use under joint cooperation with the AFP.

Stated objectives of the EDCA include establishment of facilities to support humanitarian assistance and disaster response operations, as well as the modernization of the AFP. Philippines-US Cooperation will be advanced in 2024.

The 9 EDCA site locations include: -

• Antonio Bautista Air Base in Palawan

• Basa Air Base in Pampanga

• Benito Ebuen Air Base in Cebu

• Fort Magsaysay in Nueva Ecija

• Lumbia Airport in Cagayan de Oro

• Naval Base Camilo Osias in Sta. Ana, Cagayan

• Lal-lo Airport in Cagayan

• Camp Melchor Dela Cruz in Isabela

• Balabac Island in Palawan

Certainly, tensions in the South China Sea make for slightly anxious watching of regional residents, as well described in the following 4th January article.

Yesterday a BusinessWorld article announced that Philippines and Germany would cooperate on security in the South China Sea to ensure international law is upheld.

FILIPINO SKILLED MIGRANTS SOUGHT

Germany is looking to recruit Filipino professionals across various sectors.

Germany’s death rates already exceed their birth rates, and the only way for their population to continue growing is through immigration.

Australia also has below replacement natural population growth and is actively recruiting immigrants. As reported in the 2023-23 Migration Program Report, 2022-2023 saw Australia’s largest ever permanent skilled migration program with 142,344 places. Registered nurses were the highest accepted occupation (10,181 places) out of 17,061 healthcare places, and 3,572 places were delivered to teaching occupations. Filipinos were the 3rd most represented nationality, with 9,125 placements to the skill stream and 3,957 to the family stream.

Great for Australia, Germany and other recruiting nations, but the Philippines are losing their skilled people! Skilled people have to be trained. Filipino students will miss out on higher education and career advancement if they cannot improve their academic performance. Currently 15-year old are testing at 5 to 6 years behind foreign peers in learning competencies.

PISA measures the ability of a 15-yo to use reading, maths and science knowledge and skills to meet real-life challenges. By extension, this could also be a critical indicator of whether the nation’s wider population have the skills and ability to meet real life challenges.

Catch up Fridays for public school students. Of course, they also need teachers appropriately trained and resourced to help their learners. But what scheduled learning will the catch-up Fridays replace?

Keeping students in age-appropriate levels, when they do not have the basic reading and maths skills to keep up with their peers is likely a waste of time for everyone, as the teachers must try to teach the ready learners as well as make up for the students who missed key learning. This holds back the high achievers and also denies the delayed students the opportunity to learn and consolidate the required skills and knowledge in a focused environment.

I would think a better approach would be to test students and then place them in classes based on their skill and knowledge level. Promotion to next level would be based on skill achievement.

Ideally, students could be assigned to appropriate classes separately for different subjects. A student who is great in reading but poor in maths and average in science, could be assigned to different levels of each subject. Acceleration, or specific remedial classes could be provided for struggling students. Highly achieving students could be accelerated or placed in excel classes where their skills can be further built to a very high level.

CHARTER CHANGE SIGNATURES IN EXCHANGE FOR AID?

Charter change by hook or by crook? There are reports of signatures being canvased in exchange for ayuda (financial aid / assistance) on forms that can be used as a people’s initiative to drive charter change.

MARCOS UPBEAT ABOUT 2024

President Marcos says the Philippines has recovered from the pandemic and other world events and is in doing well! He cited 6.1% economic growth in the 3rd quarter of 2023, and unemployment (6.3% in November 2023) and underemployment (11.7% in November 2023) as proof of recovery.

I will leave today’s report with this very positive outlook from the nation’s leader.

1. The Sandiganbayan is a special court in the Philippines¹². It was established under Presidential Decree No. 1606 and has jurisdiction over criminal and civil cases involving graft and corrupt practices and other offenses committed by public officers and employees, including those in government-owned or controlled corporations¹. The Sandiganbayan is equivalent in rank to the Court of Appeals and sits in five divisions of three justices each²