Category: Auto Guid

ILOILO CITY — More than 6,000 schools across the Philippines are under heightened alert for possible flooding and rain-induced landslides as a low-pressure area (LPA), shearline, and the northeast monsoon continue to bring widespread rains, the Department of Education (DepEd) said.

Citing the Philippine Atmospheric Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration (Pagasa) Weather Advisory No. 13, DepEd said the shearline is affecting the eastern section of Northern Luzon, the northeast monsoon is influencing the rest of Northern Luzon, while the Intertropical Convergence Zone is impacting Mindanao.

The LPA is projected to bring additional rains by November 24.

DepEd’s hazard monitoring shows 4,136 schools in 44 divisions at risk of flooding from November 23–24, with rainfall levels expected to reach 50–100 millimeters.

The highest concentration of schools exposed to flooding is in Region 8 or Eastern Visayas (1,811), followed by Region 13 or Caraga (1,237), Region 7 or Central Visayas (522), Region 2 or Cagayan Valley (374), and Region 10 or Northern Mindanao (192).

Flood-prone clusters appear throughout Samar, Leyte, Surigao provinces, as well as parts of Bicol and Northern Mindanao.

Meanwhile, 2,326 schools in 42 divisions are threatened by rain-induced landslides, particularly in mountainous or elevated communities.

Region 7 has the largest number of landslide-exposed schools at 969, followed by Region 8 (724), Region 10 (269), Region 2 (208), and Region 13 (156). High and very high susceptibility areas remain concentrated in Eastern Visayas, the Zamboanga Peninsula, Northern Mindanao, and parts of Northern Luzon.

DepEd’s Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Service urged schools and division offices to work closely with local government units and disaster-response councils, activate School DRRM teams, secure learning materials and equipment, and preposition emergency supplies.

The agency also reminded schools to report incidents through the Incident Management Reporting System.

DepEd said it remains committed to ensuring the safety and well-being of learners and personnel as the country braces for continued rains in the coming days. /mcm

South Korea made a quiet but meaningful policy change in October. For the first time, the national census now allows same-sex couples living together to identify each other as “spouse” in official records.

While this adjustment does not confer any legal rights, it marks a symbolic step in recognizing LGBTQ+ households in the state’s demographic data.

But as same-sex couples slowly appear in national statistics, legal marriage still remains out of reach. And public support for it is not growing. In fact, it is recently shrinking.

READ: Top South Korea court hands gay couple ‘historic’ win on spouse rights

Two major opinion surveys in 2025 have confirmed the trend. In a Hankook Research poll, 31 percent of South Koreans said they supported the legalization of same-sex marriage, down from 36 percent in 2021. In a separate survey by Gallup Korea, 34 percent backed legalization while 58 percent opposed it, a reversal that returns the numbers to where they stood nearly a decade ago.

Although many advocates have long assumed that rising visibility and generational change would drive progress, the latest data presents a different picture. The Korea Herald consulted two advocates who argue that it may be time to ask a different question: Does same-sex marriage need broad public support to move forward, or can the law lead the way?

Public may seem unsure until ‘law decides for them’

Yi Ho-rim, executive director of Marriage for All Korea, a leading local LGBTQ+ advocacy group, sees this moment as a reminder that legal change is not always a popularity contest. “The support for legalization has declined somewhat, but that doesn’t mean the conversation is stagnant,” Yi said.

READ: South Korean gay couple sees court win as breakthrough for equality

“In fact, we see the current moment as a result of political polarization, not public apathy.”

Yi links the decline to the broader social climate. “Far-right mobilization earlier this year, combined with heightened political tension and increased online radicalization among young men, likely influenced the shift,” she noted. “When public discourse is overwhelmed by noise and fear, minority issues like same-sex marriage naturally become sidelined.”

Yi has argued that laws can reshape public perception. “In Taiwan, support for same-sex marriage was limited before legalization in 2019. But once the law passed, social attitudes evolved quickly. That pattern is not unique to Taiwan. We’ve seen similar changes in many countries.”

This pattern is not just anecdotal. Yi points to a notable case in South Korea’s own polling history. “There’s no way to prove causality,” she said, “but it’s hard to see it as a coincidence that Gallup Korea’s support numbers jumped by 10 percentage points between 2013 and 2014, exactly when countries like New Zealand, France and several US states made headlines by legalizing same-sex marriage.”

Park Dae-seung, a political philosopher at Seoul National University and director of the Institute for Inequality and Citizenship in Seoul, agrees. “Constitutional democracies are designed to protect minority rights, even when those rights are unpopular,” Park said.

“Laws that affirm dignity and equality are rarely embraced by a majority at first. But they send a powerful social signal. They tell people what is ‘normal’. In other words, it’s the law that decides for them what’s acceptable.”

“Korean politicians routinely cite ‘lack of public consensus’ as a reason to delay bills like the Life Partnership Act or Marriage Equality Act, both of which remain stalled in the National Assembly for years,” he added. “But it’s an excuse.”

While younger South Koreans have historically been more supportive of LGBTQ+ rights, the generational divide is showing unexpected shifts. The latest Gallup Korea poll revealed that support for same-sex marriage among people in their 20s dropped by 15 percentage points between 2023 and 2025. At the same time, support among those over 70 nearly doubled, from 10 percent to 19 percent.

Yi sees this as a sign that older generations are not immovable. “These are people who still get most of their information from legacy media. When the 2024 Supreme Court ruling recognized same-sex cohabiting partners as eligible for health insurance benefits, it was widely reported. That may have helped normalize the issue.”

Groups like the Coalition Against Homosexuality and Same-Sex Marriage, backed by conservative Christian organizations, have actively resisted even symbolic shifts. In October, the group filed a criminal complaint against government officials who authorized same-sex partner recognition in the 2025 census. They claimed it violated the law by creating “false public records” and warned of a wider moral collapse.

Yi has contended that public discomfort should not be used to delay basic rights. “Many of these objections rely on the idea that LGBTQ+ people do not value love, care or long-term commitment,” she said.

“But that is only because most people have never met a same-sex couple in their daily lives. We are still largely invisible, and the numbers show it. In the 2025 Hankook Research survey, people who personally know an LGBTQ+ person were nearly twice as likely to support same-sex marriage. Visibility alone makes a real difference.” /dl

HANOI — The death toll from major flooding in Vietnam has risen to 90, with 12 people still missing, the environment ministry said Sunday, after days of heavy rain and landslides.

Relentless rain has lashed south-central Vietnam since late October and popular holiday destinations have been hit by several rounds of flooding.

Whole sections of coastal Nha Trang city were inundated last week, while deadly landslides struck highland passes around the Da Lat tourist hub.

READ: Vietnam flood death toll rises to 35

In the hard-hit mountainous province of Dak Lak, 61-year-old farmer Mach Van Si said the floodwaters left him and his wife stranded on their sheet-metal rooftop for two nights.

“Our neighborhood was completely destroyed. Nothing was left. Everything was covered in mud,” he told AFP on Sunday.

By the time they climbed a ladder to their roof, Si said he was no longer scared.

“I just thought we were going to die because there was no way out,” he said.

More than 60 deaths recorded since November 16 were in Dak Lak, where tens of thousands of homes were inundated, the environment ministry said in a statement.

READ: Typhoon Kalmaegi hits Vietnam after killing 140 in Philippines

Four communes in Dak Lak were still flooded on Sunday, the ministry said.

More than 80,000 hectares of rice and other crops across Dak Lak and four other provinces were damaged in the last week, with over 3.2 million livestock or poultry dead or washed away by floodwaters.

Authorities have used helicopters to airdrop aid to communities cut off by flooding and landslides, with the government deploying tens of thousands of personnel to deliver clothing, water-purification tablets, instant noodles and other supplies to affected areas, state outlet Tuoi Tre News said.

Severe flooding in southern coastal Khanh Hoa province washed away two suspension bridges last week, leaving many households isolated, the outlet said, citing officials.

Several locations on national highways remained blocked on Sunday due to flooding or landslides, according to the environment ministry, and some railway sections were still suspended.

More than 129,000 customers remained without electricity, after more than a million were without power last week.

The environment ministry on Sunday estimated economic losses of $343 million across five provinces due to the floods.

Natural disasters have left 279 people dead or missing in Vietnam and caused more than $2 billion in damage between January and October, according to the national statistics office.

The Southeast Asian nation is prone to heavy rain between June and September, but scientists have identified a pattern of human-driven climate change making extreme weather more frequent and destructive. /dl

BAGUIO CITY — Cordillera teachers on Saturday demanded that future budgets allocated for education should resolve all the gaps in classrooms and faculty wages that still plague mountainside schools, as they prepare their own national protest against corruption on November 28 ahead of the next round of the Trillion Peso March on Bonifacio Day (November 30).

The Alliance of Concerned Teachers (ACT) in the Cordillera outlined next week’s plans of action after launching the local movement Guro Laban sa Korapsyon (Teachers against Corruption) to express outrage over the multimillion-peso public works kickbacks paid to government officials and several lawmakers and to demand an increase in the national education budget which should be equivalent to 6 percent of the gross domestic product (GDP).

This year’s budget of P737 billion represents only 4 percent of GDP, and has not been enough to compensate for the recent disasters and fluctuating inflation that affects household spending, said Joel Capulong, ACT-Cordillera president. Next year, the projected 2026 budget for education has increased to almost P929 billion.

In Baguio, virtually all the campuses are taking part in a series of rallies next week: among them the University of the Philippines (UP) Baguio, the University of the Cordilleras (UC), the University of  Baguio (UB), Easter College and the biggest, Saint Louis University (SLU), according to their representatives at the briefing.

Each campus would stage its own rally on Friday next week, with participating teachers and students told to wear white, before they all march out and converge with other protesting schools at downtown Baguio in the afternoon, said Louise Montenegro, ACT-Cordillera coordinator.

The teachers would also take part in the Baguio leg of the November 30 protests at Session Road, she said.

Ronald Taggaoa, president of the union of faculty and employees of SLU (Ufeslu), said their members are “angered and have jointly objected to any form of corruption in government,” stressing that the thought of billions of pesos lost to graft offends every taxpayer.

Ufeslu joins a growing clamor for the return of the corrupted funds so it would be used to improve public services, he said. SLU teachers also demanded the full use of the freedom of information mechanism to allow the public better access to government transactions, stronger protection for whistleblowers and accelerate the digitalization of government services to reduce opportunities for graft, said Taggaoa.

Capulong said the teachers’ mass actions across provinces will highlight the government’s 165,000 classroom shortage (which the 2026 budget resolves by allocating funds to build only 4,000 new classrooms), and a teacher shortage of about 150,000 (but only 32,000 new teachers are to be hired in 2026).

This translates to the required 2,030 new classrooms for the mountain region or a 540 classroom shortage in Benguet province, 114 shortage in Baguio City, 112 in Apayao province, 288 in Mountain Province, 220 in Ifugao province, 264 in Kalinga, 197 in its city, Tabuk, he said. Capulong did not provide the classroom gaps in Abra.

He said the numbers do not reflect the impact of recent storms, like Uwan, which left serious damages to 148 classrooms. Minor repairs would be required for 461 classrooms, according to the Department of Education in the Cordillera.

Salaries also need improvements, Capulong said. He said Department of Education employees still struglle with their take home pay due to expensive market and grocery items, even though the teacher salary grade 1 had risen from P28,512 in 2024 to about P30, 000.

Earlier on November 18, an estimated 5,000 college students walked out of their classes on Tuesday to stage anti corruption rallies, beginning at noon in the Benguet State University at Benguet capital town La Trinidad, and followed at mid-afternoon by students who exited their classes at UP Baguio, UC, UB and SLU.

At 5 p.m., they converged at Malcolm Square in downtown Baguio, where student leaders blamed the previous Duterte administration and the current government of President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. for tolerating the graft which had been an “open secret” for many generations.

This was despite Marcos’ role in disclosing flood control project anomalies during his recent State of the Nation Address in April.

The students voiced their sentiments about education budget cuts, local threats to livelihoods like a public-private partnership proposal by a mall giant to build a modern Baguio public market and the impending phase out of traditional Baguio jeepneys.

The students also denounced the continuing “impunity” of corrupt officials who remain unpunished.

Many of them participated in previous mass actions like the first rally on September 21 and the October 7 march organized by Baguio Bishop Rafael Cruz, which culminated in a Mass he led at the Baguio Cathedral. SLU students dominated the thousands of marchers who blocked traffic for hours as they walked from the Baguio Convention Center to the Cathedral.

Some of them also took part in the October 18 rally held outside the La Trinidad Public Market to express outrage over anomalies that occur closer to home. About a hundred students and youth activists that day denounced P3 billion worth of allegedly fraudulent public works projects to control Benguet flooding, as well as slope stabilization projects involving rocknetting along the province’s mountain roads,  in a rare expression of activism for a normally conservative vegetable trading town.

The October 18 protest was the first gathering of local activists since 2022 and was a display of militancy to which La Trinidad’s Ibaloy, Kankanaey and multiethnic populace and a huge migrants population are unaccustomed, said Kenneth Arroco, La Trinidad chair of the Kabataan party-list group, which helped organize last month’s Benguet rally. /das

Catriona Gray hoped that the following editions of the Miss Universe pageant will have a “more transparent judging process,” as the victory of recent titleholder Fatima Bosch continues to be marred by controversy and rigging allegations.

On her Instagram Broadcast Channel on Saturday, November 22, Gray called on the Miss Universe Organization (MUO) to give a “fair competition” to the candidates in its upcoming editions, noting the importance of having a “third party official tabulator.”

She also reiterated that the “multiple statements from judges and meant to be judges” are disheartening for the delegates, noting the recent resignations of the global tilt’s selection committee.

“My prayer has always been (as someone who has experienced a competition with vague judging methods first hand lol), is that the girls be given a fair competition. So my question becomes for the MU org. I hope moving forward they can regain the trust of the fans by having a more transparent judging process with a third party official tabulator,” she said.

“The doubts of us fans are not unfounded with multiple statements from judges and meant to be judges. It’s disheartening considering all the effort, sacrifices, and dreams that were up there on that stage,” she continued.

Despite this, Gray admitted that the hate that current titleholder Fatima Bosch is receiving makes her “really sad,” adding that she’ll be on the lookout for how she’ll use the global tilt as a platform to “make a positive impact.”

“But also, I’m actually really sad to see all the hate for Ms Mexico. I really admired how she stood up for herself in the early stages of the competition and I’ll be watching to see how she utilizes the platform to make a positive impact with her title as Miss Universe,” she said.

“Ayun ang 2 cents ko. I hope the best years of MU aren’t behind us. Lets uplift our girls and tell them how they impacted us, made us proud – and when they pursue their respective [journeys let’s] support them,” she further added.

Catriona’s two-cents on this year’s candidates

According to Gray, Ahtisa Manalo and Côte d’Ivoire’s Olivia Yace performed the best in the pageant’s question-and-answer segment, noting that she “really values communication skills.” She added that seeing them on the Top 5 was “no surprise” due to their strong performances throughout the global tilt. 

She also praised the performances of Thailand’s Praveenar Singh, Venezuela’s Stephany Abasali,  and Colombia’s Vanessa Pulgarin, noting they were “fan favorites for a reason.”

“Personal take ko: best in initial Q&A was Cote. And best in final word was PH. But again, kung judge ako — I really value communication skills, so Q&A means alot to me personally,” she said.

However, she pointed out that while the initial questions in the first round were “good,” the final question was “basic” since it’s one of the questions used to prepare for the global tilt.

“When it came to the Q&A, the selection of initial questions were good! Although i had super high expectations for the final word cause — I mean sa totoo guys, super basic yung tanong na yan in preparing for MU. If you don’t have a super solid answer for that question, ewan ko nalang,” she said.

The former beauty queen, emphasizing on her experience as a pageant judge, said the “taste” of the panel will always “be different,” and it is something that couldn’t be explained.

“But just to share, I’ve sat on judging panels both locally and abroad and I have experienced (some, not all) being [surprised] by the results. Sometimes, the “taste” of judges really is different. Baka they value a certain look, beauty, type of walk – basta, baka may personal trip lang nila. We dont know eh,” she said.

“What i would like to see though, is transparency of criteria of judging, how is it being scored and to have an official tabulating firm in MU,” she continued.

Gray is the fourth Miss Universe winner from the Philippines, and her performance in the global tilt’s 2018 edition is often referred to as the “standard” for beauty queens. 

She is also nicknamed the “pambansang coping mechanism” by Filipinos, as many would rewatch her Miss Universe performance whenever a delegate would lose in their respective pageants. /edv

Miss Universe 2025 Fatima Bosch echoed the line of the global pageant organization that her victory was destined. She added that her coronation was a moment destined by God while also expressing her gratitude for her recent milestone. 

Bosch posted on her Instagram page on Saturday, Nov. 22, saying her win is proof of God orchestrating moments that won’t be stopped by “envy or destiny.”

“Today I reaffirmed that what God has destined for you, neither envy stops it, nor destiny aborts it, nor luck changes it. Long live Christ the King,” she wrote in Spanish.

Bosch’s remarks echoes the praise of the Miss Universe Organization (MUO), which also stated that the Mexican beauty queen couldn’t be stopped by “envy or fate.”

“What God has destined for you, no envy can stop it, no fate can undo it, and no luck can change it,” the post read.

In a separate post, Bosch said she is ready to work as the reigning titleholder.

“First day at work,” the post read.

Bosch is the fourth Mexican woman to bring home the Miss Universe crown after Andrea Meza, Ximena Navarrete, and Lupita Jones. Prior to the coronation, she caught the attention of pageant fans and observers after getting into a spat with VP for Asiana Nawat Itsaragrisil during a sashing ceremony. 

READ: Miss Universe 2025 ‘Fake Winner’? Resigned pageant judge alleges rigging

Her win, however, was mired in controversy after she was accused of being a “fake winner” by French–Lebanese musician Omar Harfourch, who resigned from his judging post prior to the coronation as he “couldn’t handle” the alleged rigging orchestrated by MUO. According to Harfouch, Bosch was already the pre-determined winner before the coronation took place.

Half of the MUO is owned by Mexican business mogul Raul Rocha, while Meza was one of the members of the judging panel. /edv

Here we are, 35 years after the release of a film that dared to take the ultimate alien hunter out of the Central American jungle and drop him into the concrete jungle of Los Angeles, a city in the throes of a heatwave and gang warfare in the (then) near-future of 1997. The film is, of course, ‘Predator 2,’ which was released on November 21, 1990. That was a long time ago, and yet this film, whether you get to re-watch it or watch it for the first time, will show you some things that will either impress you, turn you off, or blow your mind, that they were able to get away with things that could have possibly damaged the reputation of the Predator as this bad*** alien hunter? But what happened was the complete opposite of that.

I can still remember how I got to watch ‘Predator 2’ for the first time, and that was in VHS form. And here I was, a pre-teen who knew zero about this sequel to Predator, and only knew that it had the Number 2 on its cover. I had no idea the violence, gore, foul language, and gratuitous nudity I would be exposed to! Haha. For me, upon looking back, if Predator was a master class on the hunt, ‘Predator 2’ was an eclectic trash bag mix of a lot of other stuff that you would not easily associate with a Predator movie. 

READ: ‘Predator: Badlands’: Bold, beautiful and bloody game changer for the franchise

I mean, seriously, it was like the trashiest but coolest Predator film ever. It felt like a Dark Horse comic book in that regard. It was messy, it was brutal, it was gritty, it was as if you were taken to the most seedy underbelly of Los Angeles, which made it the ideal backdrop for the Predator to resume his hunt far away from the jungles of Central America.

Unsurprisingly, at the time of its release, the critical reception was mixed if not negative, and it didn’t quite match the box office success, expectations, and standards of the original Predator starring Arnold Schwarzenegger. I think most people were pissed off that Arnold Schwarzenegger did not come back, but he had another bigger-budget movie he had to be working on at the time. But over the decades, the sequel has rightfully earned its place as a cult classic, a brass-and-blood spectacle that deserves a fresh look, an open mind, and a little bit more respect because it dared to go in a direction that most fans of the first Predator movie never thought of. And it did pay off in spades, much later, adding to its Predator-related value for longtime fans such as myself.

‘Predator 2’ did not come up short by any means when it came to hiring top-class people behind the scenes, as this was directed by Stephen Hopkins (‘A Nightmare on Elm Street 5: The Dream Child,’ ‘Lost in Space (1998),’ and the movie features a respectable cast led by the always-reliable veteran actor Danny Glover as “Lieutenant Mike Harrigan,” a tough, streetwise cop who discovers that the gruesome, ritualistic murders plaguing his city are the work of a supernatural, extraterrestrial hunter and not any of the resident gangs that have turned Los Angeles into a gang warfare – war zone.

Upon watching Danny Glover’s portrayal, I could not stop thinking and asking myself why he looks much younger here than he did in the Lethal Weapon movies he did at that point, thus far. It all had to do with him shaving the mustache, dying his hair, clothes, personality, and role he portrayed that made all the differences needed for him to better pull off this onscreen character as a toughened-up, streetwise cop than everyone else on the precinct. He is, after all, deemed to be the most targeted prey of “The City Hunter” Predator because he views him to be a worthy adversary, plus he wants to add his skull to his mantle of trophies.

Beyond the theme, the tone and overall vibe differ from the first. There was another huge shift in terms of setting, which is switching from a dense, green jungle to a hot, chaotic, and overcrowded urban landscape, making for a thrilling contrast and a fresh backdrop for the hunt. The “City Hunter,” as this new Predator is known, employs its military-like tactics in this harsh environment, using the city’s verticality and crowded spaces to its advantage. I am particularly happy with how this Predator not only greatly improved upon creature design thanks to Stan Winston but showcased his extensive arsenal of weapons, which included this disc-like weapon, a net that can be shot out, a retractable staff that he can throw and use in hand-to-hand battle, and a shoulder cannon that did not shoot lasers but was the same model as the one used in the first Predator movie.

While the film provided a glimpse into the Predator species’ culture and technology, most notably the trophy wall at the end of the film, which hinted at past hunts, including an Easter egg that tied the Predator and Alien franchises together years before ‘Alien vs. Predator’ was a reality. That precise moment in that famous scene is one of the film’s most memorable, most replayed, and most discussed among longtime fans. Why so? This is because it cemented in moviegoers’ minds that the Predator species has been around for thousands of years, if not more, and hunting the best kind of prey they can find on any planet or universe it inhabits.

Beyond Danny Glover, the movie stars the late, great Gary Busey as a shady government agent, “Ruben Blades,” Maria Conchita Alonso, and, in a truly fan-favorite role, Bill Paxton as the fast-talking, excitable “Detective Jerry Lambert.” Paxton, in particular, delivers a memorably likable performance that will stand the test of time, adding to this growing list of popular roles in his filmography.

Today, the Predator franchise is alive and well, with recent hits like the critically and commercially acclaimed ‘Prey (2022)’ reinvigorating interest in the Predator franchise. The newest film, ‘Predator: Badlands,’ was released in cinemas a few weeks ago, which I got to watch, and I wrote a comprehensive review of it. ‘Predator: Badlands’ is responsible for carrying the franchise into new, out-of-this-world territory, while, on the downside, managing to cast a long shadow back over what Hopkins and the legendary Stan Winston built in L.A. all those decades ago. You can really see how far the Predator franchise has reached compared to the more primal nature of ‘Predator 2.’

But suppose it were not for ‘Predator 2’ making bold strides, changing direction, and defying expectations like a giant middle finger to the face of everyone. Truth be told, I don’t think there would have been much of a Predator franchise to begin with, and things would have turned out much differently. Perhaps, for all you know, there would have never been any brand new Predator movies if not for this one? 

So, for me, it is fitting to celebrate the 35th anniversary of ‘Predator 2,’ as it is a perfect time to revisit this underrated gem, somewhat misunderstood piece of film, and “dark horse” of the entire Predator franchise. It’s a prime example of a sequel that, while not perfect, took bold swings, made people scratch their heads in disbelief at what they were watching in some scenes, and enriched the expanding world it inhabited, giving birth to a Predator franchise that would be revisited every couple of years to see if it would still work with moviegoers. And now, only as of late, it has not only clicked with moviegoers, but has taken off to brand new, unseen planetary heights with movies like ‘Predator: Badlands,’ which was awesome.

So, grab a seat, fire up your streaming service, or if you really want to be authentic, get transported back to a different time and relive that first movie experience, then get your VHS copy of this movie into the player. Haha. And give ‘Predator 2’ the respect it deserves. After all these decades, it’s still got a few days to kill, and you may be next.