FMJ’s SONA barong, collaborations of several artisans
By Nidz Godino
“PBBM’s SONA barong is collaborative work of artisans from Lucban, Quezon; Taal, Batangas; and Aklan,” Presidential Communications Office (PCO) said President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.will wear barong made by artists from Southern Luzon and Aklan during his third State of the Nation Address (SONA).
PCO also released photos of Marcos’ final rehearsal.
The President will deliver his speech before joint session of Congress at Batasang Pambansa complex in Quezon City this afternoon.
Over 2,000 guests are expected to attend this year’s SONA that include political leaders and members of diplomatic community.
Earlier this month, Marcos said among issues he would tackle in his address are “different threats that have been coming to us,” including state of economy, government’s fight against criminality and illegal drugs, as well as Filipinos’ quality of life.
Radio Television Malacañang, government unit that covers President’s official functions and activities, will direct Marcos’ third SONA.
PCO Secretary Cheloy Garafil earlier said Marcos writes and edits his address himself. Marcos’ first SONA was one hour and 14 minutes long. His second address lasted for one hour and 11 minutes.
The 1987 Constitution requires the President to address Congress at the opening of its regular session. The address is delivered every fourth Monday of July.
Post-SONA discussions are slated in Pasay tomorrow and Wednesday that are expected to be attended by different government agencies.
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‘Shogun’ tops Emmy nominations 25, ‘The Bear’ cooks up comedy record
By Cynthia Montojo
“The Bear” broke comedy record for most nominations in single year, with 23, ahead of “Only Murders in the Building” which landed on 21.
Hit drama series “Shogun,” transported viewers to early 17th-century Japan, topped television’s Emmy nominations, earning 25 nods.
“True Detective: Night Country,” starring Jodie Foster, topped limited or anthology series section, scoring 19 nominations.
Nominees were announced in live-streamed ceremony from Los Angeles, with final-round voting for 76th Emmy Awards scheduled for next month, ahead of September 15 ceremony.
“Shogun” adapted from James Clavell’s historical fiction novel portrays intricate and deadly court politics of feudal Japan.
Television Academy voters were not put off by show’s heavy use of subtitles, showering nominations on its remarkable cast of Japanese heroes and villains.
Among those were lead actress Anna Sawai and lead actor Hiroyuki Sanada, who said nomination was “truly humbling.”
“It was great opportunity to share our culture with the world…. I hope this will be stepping stone for next generation,” Sanada said in e-mailed statement.
With another two seasons already in the works, “Shogun” is hot favorite across this year’s drama categories.
But surprisingly, there was no nomination for Cosmo Jarvis for his portrayal of marooned English sailor who frames show’s narrative for audiences.
“Shogun” faces competition in drama categories from final season of Netflix’s British royal saga “The Crown,” and Apple’s “The Morning Show” starring Jennifer Aniston.
Meanwhile, “The Bear” topped comedy categories, making history with its 23 nominations.
Previous record set in 2009 was held by Alec Baldwin’s “30 Rock.”
Set in a chaotic Chicago restaurant run by group of close-knit but abrasive and occasionally abusive chefs, “The Bear,” was big winner for its debut season at the last Emmys.
It returned with even more ambitious and experimental second run.
Sumptuous montages of Michelin star-level dishes were paired with extraordinary episodes like “Fishes”, hour-long portrait of dysfunctional family tearing itself apart over one excruciating dinner.
Bizarrely entered in comedy categories, despite dealing with hard-hitting issues like grief and addiction, “The Bear” is up against shows including “Hacks,” “Abbott Elementary,” “Only Murders in the Building,” and “Curb Your Enthusiasm.”
Both “Shogun” and “The Bear” come from FX, Disney-owned channel enjoyed stellar day with further multiple nominations for “Fargo,” “Feud: Capote vs The Swans,” “Welcome to Wrexham,” and “What We Do in the Shadows.”
Categories for limited or anthology series are always packed with water-cooler hits.
“True Detective: Night Country” fourth installment of dark crime anthology series, this time shifted action to Alaska scored most nominations this year.
Double Oscar-winner Foster was among Emmy nominees as lead actress.
Among category’s other contenders was Netflix’s “Baby Reindeer,” adapted from Scottish comedian Richard Gadd’s pitch-black one-man show about his encounters with female stalker.
Global phenomenon, has suffered controversy after woman claiming to be its real-life inspiration sued streamer, earned 11 nods, including one for Gadd.
Other widely nominated shows in limited series section included “Fargo,” “Ripley,” and “Lessons in Chemistry.” There were surprising snubs for Kate Winslet “The Regime” and Emma Stone “The Curse”.
76th Emmy Awards will be second to take place in 2024, after last year’s ceremony was postponed to January due to Hollywood strikes. It will honor television series that were broadcast between June 2023 and May 2024.
Tony Hale “Veep” and Sheryl Lee Ralph “Abbott Elementary” unveiled nominations.
Voting members of US-based Television Academy have month to catch up on their viewing, before final-round voting takes place in mid-August.
Programs with most overall nominations:
“Shogun” – 25 “The Bear” – 23 “Only Murders in the Building” – 21 “True Detective: Night Country” – 19 “The Crown” – 18 “Saturday Night Live” – 17
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Cebu Pacific, AirAsia systems restored
By J.Lo
“All systems are now operational and we plan to operate our normal flight schedules as we advise passengers with confirmed bookings to continue monitoring status of their flights,” Cebu Pacific corporate communications director Carmina Romero said systems have been restored and no stranded passengers remain at Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) Terminal 3 following global IT systems outage affected airlines and banks since July 19.
Cebu Pacific Air (CEB) have fully restored their system.
Romero said CEB’s technology provider Navitaire has completed restoring all its services and its underlying servers to “full capacity.”
“We are grateful to our IT and airport staff who worked tirelessly to resolve situation and assist affected passengers at NAIA Terminal 3,” she stressed.
AirAsia Philippines head of communications and public affairs and first officer Steve Dailisan said as of Saturday, all their systems are back online.
“We ask for patience among our guests as we recover from multiple delays and cancellations as result of global IT outage since Friday that is beyond our control, as airline guest-obsessed, AirAsia team continues to work tirelessly to minimize disruptions and ensure our passengers stay well informed and adequately taken care of, ” he said.
On July 19, global IT systems outage crippled flight operations of local and some foreign airlines, leaving thousands of departing passengers stranded at NAIA.
MIAA announced cancellation of 45 domestic and international flights due to system outage.
Some 12,500 passengers of Cebu Pacific and around 13,000 AirAsia passengers were affected, as well as six foreign airlines operating at NAIA.
In Paris, planes were gradually taking off again Saturday after global airlines, banks and media were thrown into turmoil by one of the biggest IT crashes in recent years, caused by update to antivirus program.
Passenger crowds had swelled at airports on Friday as dozens of flights were canceled after update to program operating on Microsoft Windows crashed systems worldwide.
By Saturday, officials said situation had returned virtually to normal at airports across Germany and France, as Paris prepared to welcome millions for Olympic Games starting on Friday.
Multiple US airlines and airports across Asia had resumed operations, with check-in services restored in Hong Kong, South Korea and Thailand and mostly back to normal in India, Indonesia and at Singapore’s Changi Airport as of Saturday afternoon.
Microsoft estimated Saturday 8.5 million Windows devices were affected as number amounted to less than one percent of all Windows machines.
“While percentage was small, broad economic and societal impacts reflect use of CrowdStrike by enterprises run many critical services,” it said.
Microsoft said issue began on July 18, affecting Windows users running CrowdStrike Falcon cybersecurity software.
In Saturday blog post, CrowdStrike had released update on Thursday night that had caused system crash and infamous “blue screen of death” fatal error message.
CrowdStrike had rolled out fix for problem and company’s boss, George Kurtz, told US news channel CNBC he wanted to “personally apologize to every organization, every group and every person who has been impacted.”
Company could take few days for situation to return to normal.
Britain’s National Health Service (NHS) was hobbled by crash on Friday, preventing doctors from accessing patient records and booking appointments.
“Majority of systems… are now coming back online in most areas, however, they are still running slightly slower than usual,” NHS spokesperson said, warning of disruption continuing into next week.
Media companies were also hit, with Britain’s Sky News saying glitch had ended its Friday morning news broadcasts.
Australia’s ABC also reported major difficulties.
Australian, British and German authorities warned of increase in scam and phishing attempts following outage, including people offering to help reboot computers and asking for personal information or credit card details.
Banks in Kenya and Ukraine reported issues with their digital services, some mobile phone carriers were disrupted and customer services in several companies went down.
“Scale of this outage is unprecedented, and will no doubt go down in history,” said Junade Ali of Britain’s Institution of Engineering and Technology, adding last incident approaching same scale was in 2017.
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Senate places Cha-cha ‘on backburner’
By Nidz Godino
“Pending bills on Charter change will be placed in back-burner and will follow ordinary and regular process of legislation, if at all…in its stead, bills which can affect the same result, but without needless political noise and bickering, will be prioritized,” senate president, Francis Escudero said for his first opening session as senate president, stressed independence of Senate and urged his colleagues to set aside pieces of legislation that “divide public.”
Charter change would be among those to be placed at the bottom of the list, Escudero declared at the opening session of Congress.
He also cited sentiments of former president Manuel Quezon, who said Senate must prioritize quality of legislation rather than number of bills passed.
Senate had clashed with House of Representatives when it came to people’s initiative for Charter change. In January, all senators slammed lower chamber for charter change. Should House’s charter change efforts have succeeded, both chambers would be allowed to jointly vote to amend 1987 Constitution. House, boasting of at least 200 lawmakers, would easily outvote 24 senators.
For Escudero, while it is House’s role to gauge public sentiment, it was Senate’s job to nuance this in legislation.
“We will tackle items in common legislative agenda, forged with Executive and those nurtured by both House and Senate, for legislation is not one-way process,” Escudero said.
While measures have been taken to ease business dealings in the Philippines, Escudero said there could be more effort to ease lives of simple Filipinos.
The new senate president will ask three basic questions when it came to prioritizing bills:
Will it make the lives of Filipinos easier?
Will it help us move faster?
Will it make the people’s burdens lighter?
“For me, foremost task of senators is to be chief common sense officers of government…for common sense, for me is what would bring ease to lives of our countrymen,” Escudero said.
National budget and maritime rights will rank high on Senate’s agenda as it opened ahead of President Ferdinand Marcos Jr’s third State of the Nation Address on Monday, July 22.
Specifically, Maritime Zone and Sea Lanes Act will “strengthen our claims over what is ours, we will strengthen our military, not to ignite any conflict, ” Escudero said at subsequent press conference as session was suspended.
Another bill Senate will prioritize is upcoming national budget, Escudero said.
Divorce and death penalty bills, meanwhile, are not considered “controversial,” he argued. While they are not tagged as priorities, these will also be heard and debated. “It will just have to go through test of legislative process and mill,” Escudero said.
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‘Get Back Paul, Ringo?’
By Cynthia Montojo
“The Beatles were supposed to stay in yacht but had to leave because yacht got crowded with fans… we asked if Manila Hotel could take them in…at first, management refused but after we assured The Beatles would quietly come in from back of hotel by boat, we booked them for a night,” Ramon Ramos of Cavalcade International Productions said The Beatles’ experience in Manila in July 1966 was nightmarish so that it’s unlikely Fab Four survivors Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr would ever consider coming back to perform here again. If The Beatles sang “Get back to where you once belonged,” there was surely no reference to Manila.
McCartney, 82, continues to tour and is booked to perform in Argentina, Chile, Brazil, Peru, Mexico, France, Spain and the UK from Oct. 1 to Dec. 19. Starr, 84, is also actively doing concerts with his All-Starr Band and starts US tour on Sept. 12. While they remain in demand all over the world, McCartney and Starr are declining attempts to bring them back to Manila.
It was on July 3, 1966, when The Beatles left Haneda Airport to go to Manila via Hong Kong where they had 70-minute layover. Cathay Pacific flight was on Convair 800 and passengers were given souvenir folder with four-by-five inch glossy black-and-white photo of The Beatles. Plane landed in Manila at 4:30 in the afternoon and The Beatles were driven to Philippine Navy HQ on Roxas Boulevard for press conference with about 40 journalists.
Questions were as inane as answers, wrote Steve Hunter in the book “Beatles ’66: Revolutionary Year.” Examples were “When did you last cut your hair?”(1933), “What is your favorite song?” (God Save The Queen), “What is your second favorite song?” (God Save The King), “What will you tell The Rolling Stones about the Philippines?” (“We’ll warn them”). The Stones were scheduled to perform in Manila that year but never came.
From Navy HQ, The Beatles were brought to yacht, Marima, owned by Don Manolo Elizalde. For dinner that night, they were served consommé, fried chicken, filet mignon, mashed potatoes, carrots and sweet peas. When group of 18 arrived to join party, The Beatles’ manager Brian Epstein decided to bring the band to Manila Hotel for privacy. They checked in at four in the morning as the hotel was fully booked and rooms were swapped to create space for The Beatles.
The next day, July 4, The Beatles were invited to Malacañang at 11 in the morning but invitation never got to them. Unaware of invitation, McCartney went to Makati then to “an adjacent shanty town settled by squatters where he bought couple of paintings as souvenirs,” wrote Hunter.
In the afternoon at 4 in the afternoon The Beatles came on stage before 30,000 fans to do half-hour show at Rizal Memorial Football Stadium. Then at 8:30 in the evening, they did another show, this time before 50,000 fans in the same venue. Front acts were the Reycard Duet, Wing Duo, Lemons Three, Eddie Reyes and the Downbeats, Dale Adriatico and Pilita Corrales with music by Carding Cruz and his orchestra.
The Beatles’ set list had 11 songs for the night show: Rock and Roll Music, She’s A Woman, If I Needed Someone, Baby’s In Black, Day Tripper, I Feel Fine, Yesterday, I Wanna Be Your Man, Nowhere Man, Paperback Writer and I’m Down. The matinee excluded Nowhere Man.
On July 5, The Beatles were ready to leave for Delhi, India on KLM flight 862 for overnight stay before proceeding to London. Then, roof caved in. Epstein was ordered to pay tax bill of $17,000 and immigration authorities questioned travel documents of Mal Evans and Tony Barrow who were part of The Beatles’ traveling entourage. The band and their companions were “roughed up” at the airport where porters refused to carry their luggage and escalators were shut down. Furor was caused by The Beatles’ apparent snub on Malacañang’s invitation.
Then-President Ferdinand Marcos issued press statement referring to the case as misunderstanding. “Incidents at the airport shouldn’t have happened since they were breach of Filipino hospitality and totally disproportionate to triviality of the whole matter,” statement said.
In 2003 or 37 years after The Beatles’ visit, the man who organized the event spoke about it. Ramos said he paid $50,000 for The Beatles to perform in Manila and took the financial brunt of the backlash. Police withdrew from securing turnstiles of two Beatles shows and fan overflow was uncontrollable. With gates unmanned, Ramos lost his shirt and pants.
Combined audience of 80,000 in two Manila shows set Beatles record for highest attendance in a day, eclipsing 55,000 set in concert at Shea Stadium, New York, on Aug. 15, 1965. Band was credited for over 1,400 shows in 16 countries over 10 years.
After Manila, The Beatles embarked on their fourth and last US tour, winding up at Candlestick Park in San Francisco where tickets weren’t sold out and protesters picketed denouncing John Lennon for his remarks about being more popular than Jesus Christ. It marked end of The Beatles’ performing on stage and opening of new chapter where John, Paul, George Harrison and Ringo began their solo careers. Now, nearly 60 years after Manila disaster, will McCartney and Starr forgive and forget to “get back to where they once belonged?”
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Baguio face bags Miss World Ph title
By Cynthia Montojo
Krishnah Marie Gravidez of Baguio City bagged Miss World Philippines 2024 title during pageant’s coronation night held Friday at SM Mall of Asia Arena in Pasay City.
She will represent the country at 72nd edition of international beauty pageant.
Krishnah, youth advocate and beauty queen, bested 32 contestants who participated in the competition. She was crowned by former winner Gwendolyne Fourniol.
Jasmine Omay of Tarlac and Sophia Bianca Santos of Pampanga were declared First Princess and Second Princess, respectively.
During question and answer segment, Krishnah was asked, “should inclusivity be our top priority among pageants…yes or no…explain your answer.”
She replied, “pageantry is platform where we express ourselves as women and then and I feel like this is great platform for us to promote our advocacies, causes that we’re fighting for and things that we love…so I think that in world we’re evolving, I think we as humans, should evolve too…thank you.”
Krishnah earlier joined Miss Universe Philippines 2023 pageant where she placed among Top 5 finalists and was appointed as Philippines’ representative to Miss Charm 2024. But she withdrew from competition.
It was later announced that she will participate in Miss World Philippines.
She also won major awards at Miss World Philippines 2024 pageant, such as Miss Photogenic, Best in Swimsuit and Best in Evening Gown and special awards, Miss Oro China, Best Skin by Cathy Valencia, Miss Bench, Miss Multimedia, Top Model Competition Winner, Miss Hello Glow, Miss Dr. Leo, among others.
Other titles were also presented to the following candidates: Batangas’ Patricia Bianca Tapia (Miss Philippines Tourism 2024), Bicol’s Jeanne Isabelle Bilasano (Face of Beauty Philippines 2024), Pangasinan’s Nikki Buenafe (Miss Multinational Philippines 2024) and Cavite’s Deanna Marie Mate (Miss Reina Hispanoamericana Filipinas 2024).
Panel of judges included Mister World Philippines 2022 Kirk Bondad, Miss World Philippines 2021 Tracy Maureen Perez, actress Sunshine Cruz, Miss World 2023 Krystyna Pyszková, Miss World Philippines 2017 Laura Lehmann, to name few.
Miss World Organization chair and chief executive officer Julia Morley also attended coronation night.
Billy Crawford, Universal Woman 2024 Maria Gigante, Reina Hispanoamericana Filipinas 2021 Emmanuelle Vera and actor Teejay Marquez were event hosts.
Manila Philharmonic Orchestra, Johnoy Danao, KAIA, BILIB, Alyssa Muhlach and The Juans rendered special performances during show.
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FMJ welcomes Angara to ‘WWW, of Cabinet’
By Nidz Godino
“We are looking forward to many good things to come from this appointment…we have had some discussions before he took his oath to give ourselves good idea of what we think needs to be done,” President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. said after oath taking, witnessed by Angara’s mother and sisters former senator Sonny Angara was officially sworn in as 37th secretary of Department of Education (DepEd), vowing that his leadership would be marked by “collaboration” with stakeholders in addressing country’s education crisis.
In statement, DepEd said Angara took his oath before President Marcos at Malacañang on Friday.
The President formally welcomed former senator to what he described as “wild, wild world of Cabinet.”
“And I know that Sonny knows what is important and I know that he knows how to get these things done and so I’m very, very optimistic for DepEd,” he added.
“I am extremely grateful to His Excellency, the President, for entrusting me to lead such an important department, I know how much he values education, much like every Filipino family… I look forward to working closely with him to pursue immediate reforms in our educational system for the benefit of our young learners and future generations” Angara said.
Angara was also present when Marcos signed New Government Procurement Act on Friday, also in Malacañang. DepEd chief is the principal author of the measure, updates existing procurement law and institutionalizes electronic procurement to ensure better services and remove opportunities for corruption.
Right after his oath-taking, Angara convened DepEd’s top officials in executive committee meeting at the agency’s central office in Pasig, where preparations for opening of School Year 2024-2025 on July 29 were discussed.
Also tackled were “policies and orders that need immediate action,” DepEd said.
In statement, Angara intends to be leader who listens to and works with stakeholders in addressing country’s education crisis.
“I am honored to lead Department of Education, listen to and work with all stakeholders and collaboratively address the challenges in the education sector, together, we will drive progress our education system needs and deserves,” he said.
The former senator took helm from Vice President Sara Duterte-Carpio, who resigned as DepEd secretary on Friday.
Aside from Angara, lawyer and professor Jose Mejia also took his oath as member of Judicial and Bar Council representing private sector last Friday. Mejia took his oath before Executive Secretary Lucas Bersamin, according to Presidential Communications Office.
In chance interview with reporters at Malacañang after his oath-taking, Angara is “confident” that salaries of teachers will significantly increase under Marcos administration.
“Yes, that increase in salary is constant need of our teachers… I know also that Department of Budget and Management (DBM) is studying it… only question of how much and when, but definitely it will increase, I’m confident that during Marcos administration, teachers salary will increase,” Angara said.
In video update uploaded on its Facebook page, Alliance of Concerned Teachers (ACT) said its leaders had dialogue with Budget Secretary Amenah Pangandaman on Thursday, wherein the latter said there would be another round of salary increase for government workers, including public school teachers, under Salary Standardization Law (SSL) 6.
“There would be salary increase under planned SSL 6…this will have retroactive implementation from January (2024) with total estimated budget of P40 billion,” ACT Teachers Party-list chairman Antonio Tinio said in video.
Tinio, however, said their group does not see supposed salary increase under planned SSL 6 to be substantial.
“Clear message here is, even if there would be SSL 6, it still cannot meet what we have been calling for: P50,000 entry level salary for Teacher 1 and P33,000 for Salary Grade 1 education employees… so, our fight for P50,000 entry level salary for our teachers shall continue,” Tinio, led ACT delegation during dialogue with DBM officials, said.
Also raised by the group during dialogue was need to double budget for education for 2025 and onwards “to meet international education budget standards of equivalent to six percent of gross domestic product.”
Both ACT and Teachers’ Dignity Coalition (TDC) have been pushing for P50,000 entry-level salary for teachers; P33,000 monthly salary for Salary Grade I education employees and P30,000 monthly salary (Salary Grade 16) for those under Instructor 1 classification.
Groups have also been calling to set minimum salary standards for private school teachers to be at par with those in public schools.
ACT and TDC earlier lamented existing salary scheme – under Republic Act 11466 or SSL 5 enacted during term of former president Rodrigo Duterte has failed to substantially compensate public school teachers, especially those in lower positions.
SSL V raised basic entry-level salaries of public school teachers to P27,000 through phased implementation from 2020 to 2023. SSL V places teachers at Salary Grade 11, lowest among government professionals.
ACT and TDC earlier said they are currently working with several legislators at House of Representatives in drafting bills that would align teachers’ salaries with standards outlined in Magna Carta for Public School Teachers rather than SSL
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ACT slams P20 M budget for SONA
By Nidz Godino
“How can Marcos Jr. administration justify spending P20 million on single speech when millions of Filipino families struggle to put food on table.. lavish expenditure is slap in the face to majority of our people living in poverty,” ACT chairman Vladimer Quetua said teachers’ group Alliance of Concerned Teachers (ACT) slammed reported P20-million budget for President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.’s third State of the Nation Address (SONA) on Monday.
In statement, ACT said spending P20 million for single day event is an “unconscionable extravagance,” given “dire state of Philippine education and widespread poverty.”
Quetua lamented “one-day event splurge,” stating education sector continues to struggle with perennial shortages in classrooms, teachers, education support personnel, learning materials and facilities.
“This misplaced priority is emblematic of administration out of touch with needs of ordinary Filipinos,” Quetua said.
ACT urged administration to redirect portion of SONA budget to “urgent educational needs.”
Quetua stressed more than “pageantry,” what education sector wants to hear during SONA are concrete plans to improve lives of teachers and students.
“We demand to hear about substantial salary increases for teachers, commitment to double education budget and scrapping of wasteful confidential and intelligence funds,” Quetua declared.
House secretary-general Reginald Velasco had earlier confirmed to media that some P20 million has been allotted for “preparation and execution” of this year’s SONA.
Velasco said SONA on Monday would be biggest so far in terms of seats , over 2,000, including 1,814 total seats at the plenary.
Some function rooms were also assigned as viewing rooms for those who could not be accommodated in plenary hall.
Key component of SONA, Velasco said, is food and beverages, covering meals for all personnel involved, including internal staff and external personnel, as well as other support staff.
Velasco added P20-million budget is not only for actual day of SONA but also for all preparatory activities leading to the event.
“I want to assure public we are committed to transparency and responsibility in spending public funds,” Velasco said.
Meanwhile, House labor and employment committee chair and Rizal Rep. Fidel Nograles is expecting the President to tackle labor issues in his SONA.
“Labor is major sector and one that concerns every Filipino, so I expect that we will hear about his plans to address various issues on Monday,” he noted.
Nograles expressed “grave concern” that Philippines ranked 59th among 60 countries analyzed in Global Life-Work Balance Index report of global human resource services firm Remote.
“This outage is affecting companies globally, including those in the Philippines, that use the said cybersecurity product,” the Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) spokesman and assistant secretary for legal affairs Renato Paraiso said in statement at least 25,500 travelers were stranded as 45 flights at Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) were canceled following global IT systems outage that has crippled flight operations of local and foreign airlines since Friday.
Manila International Airport Authority (MIAA) announced flights operated by Cebu Pacific, CebGo, Air Asia and United Airlines were canceled because of CrowdStrike system outage, greatly affected check-in, booking and flight operations.
Of total stranded passengers, 12,500 were Cebu Pacific passengers while 13,000 were Air Asia’s.
Cebu Pacific announced through Facebook cancellation of its international 5J flights bound for and returning from Incheon, Denpasar, Bangkok, Taipei and Shanghai as well as 5J domestic flights for Cebu, Puerto Princesa, Tacloban, Cagayan de Oro, Laoag, Iloilo, Dipolog, Butuan, Caticlan, Davao and vice versa, as well as CebGo DG flights to Legazpi and Cebu.
AirAsia also announced that its Z2 flights for Cebu, Caticlan and Iloilo were canceled.
Also included in the announcement was cancellation of United Airlines flight UA 190 to San Francisco.
On the other hand, Cebu Pacific flights from Manila, namely 5J 751 to Ho Chi Minh, 5J 310 to Taipei and 5J 759 to Jakarta were advised cancelled in earlier flight advisory, proceeded as scheduled last night. Their respective turn around flights, remained cancelled.
To reduce congestion at the terminals, passengers were advised by MIAA to check flight status with their respective airlines before proceeding to airport.
Foreign airlines JejuAir, Jetstar Asia, Jestar Japan, Etihad Airlines, Scoot and Hong Kong Express were also affected by CrowdStrike outage, according to MIAA.
Thousands of departing international and domestic passengers were left stranded at NAIA earlier after global IT outage grounded flights, derailed television broadcasts and impacted telecommunications worldwide.
As of yesterday, Cebu Pacific corporate communications director Carmina Romero announced automated check-in, booking and other systems have been restored following their progress to restore functionality of their systems.
Flight operations, however, will take some time to normalize, she said.
Meanwhile, Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines (CAAP) reported some 1,400 passengers were stranded at Davao International Airport on Friday, but most have been rebooked and only 39 were still waiting for rebooking yesterday.
CAAP stressed operations at the airport are slowly returning to normal but assistance, food and malasakit kits are still provided to stranded passengers in need.
Meanwhile, DICT-Cybersecurity Bureau and National Computer Emergency Response team is vigilantly monitoring ongoing global IT outage.
Paraiso assured public DICT does not use the same cybersecurity service provider and that no DICT systems or assets have been affected.
“We are in continuous communication with relevant stakeholders to obtain detailed information and assess full impact of this incident,” Paraiso said.
Globe Telecom issued customer advisory that Crowdstrike software issue has caused global IT outage affecting Microsoft Windows systems, resulting in service disruptions in some industries and key sectors nationwide.
“Globe’s core services, include call, text and date connectivity, however, remain unaffected,” according to their corporate communications team.
“Issue was isolated to few Windows-based workstations that our employees use for work for the most part, and some servers that do not materially affect our core services,” Anton Bonifacio, Globe chief information security officer, said in statement.
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