Category: Business Mirror

KORONADAL CITY, South Cotabato-Health research in the Philippines should move away from one-size-fits-all solutions and account for the distinct cultural, geographic and socioeconomic realities of communities, particularly those in rural and geographically isolated areas, according to a regional science director.

Regional Director Engr. Sammy P. Malawan, of the Department of Science and Technology (DOST) XII and chairman of the Health Research and Development Consortium XII (HRDC-12), said research should generate evidence that explains why health problems persist, why access to care remains unequal, and which interventions work best for specific communities.

‘Sometimes, we already know the problem, but we do not yet have enough evidence for the best solution. Sometimes, there is technology, but it has not reached the people who need it. And sometimes, there is already a solution but it is not sensitive to the culture, economic status, location or community affordability,’ Malawan said partly in Filipino during the opening of the 19th Philippine National Health Research System (PNHRS) Week in this city on August 11.

Hosted by HRDC XII from August 11 to 13, the 19th PNHRS Week carried the theme ‘HealthConverge: Transforming Health Research, Connecting Cultures.’

He pointed to the country’s 2024 mortality figures to illustrate the scale of the health burden.

Ischemic heart disease remained the leading cause of death, claiming 134,078 lives, or 19.1 percent of all recorded deaths. Neoplasms, or cancer, accounted for 77,433 deaths, while cerebrovascular diseases caused another 68,736.

Malawan said these figures should also be viewed through the realities faced by communities, including families dealing with lost income, patients struggling with medical expenses and residents in remote areas who travel long distances to access specialized care.

‘The health challenges of South Cotabato may not look exactly the same as those in Metro Manila. The needs of an indigenous community may differ from those of an urban population,’ he emphasized.

This, he said, highlights the need for researchers to consider local conditions, Indigenous knowledge and the experiences of health workers and other stakeholders when identifying problems and developing interventions.

‘National system becomes meaningful only when it listens to what is happening on the ground,’ Malawan said, adding that research should begin by asking communities what they actually need.

Science, technology and innovation, he added, can help translate these needs and research findings into interventions that are practical and accessible.

‘Science helps us understand. Technology gives us the tools. Innovation brings solutions closer to the people,’ he said.

Malawan urged researchers to ‘pursue research that is bold enough to ask difficult questions, humble enough to listen, rigorous enough to produce credible evidence, and practical enough to create change.’

Meanwhile, Science Secretary Renato U. Solidum Jr. said the region’s vibrant cultural heritage highlights the importance of health research that reflects the lived realities and needs of local communities.

‘Our diversity is not divisive. It is one of our greatest strengths in advanced science and technology. It is through these convergences that we transform diversity into discovery and ideas into breakthroughs,’ Solidum said in a recorded keynote message.

‘Meaningful innovations thrive when diverse minds work toward a shared purpose,’ he added.

Solidum also emphasized the role of the National Unified Health Research Agenda in guiding health research and development priorities based on the country’s health needs.

He said the Philippine Health Research Ethics Board helps uphold ethical standards in research involving human participants, while the Regional Health Research and Development Consortia strengthen research capacity at the regional and institutional levels.

He said the PNHRS implementing agencies, through their respective mandates and expertise, work together to align research priorities, build institutional capacity and ensure that scientific evidence is translated into policies and programs.

The DOST, through the Philippine Council for Health Research and Development, works with the Department of Health, Commission on Higher Education and the University of the Philippines Manila-National Institutes of Health in advancing a more coordinated and responsive health research system.

‘Let us make HealthConverge more than just a theme. Let it guide the way we work across disciplines, sectors, and cultures. Let us remain committed to advancing a health research system that is inclusive, collaborative, and responsive to the needs of the Filipino people,’ Solidum said.

The event brought together researchers, health professionals, policymakers and other stakeholders through discussions, partnership-building activities and research competitions, with a focus on strengthening collaboration and promoting locally responsive health research.

The next PNHRS Week will be held in Calabarzon.

ARTHUR CRAIG PATINO returns to defend his men’s open singles title in the 2026 Gentry National Open Tennis Championships scheduled from August 20 to 30 at the Colegio San Agustin courts in San Jose del Monte, Bulacan.

A total of 1,300 players from around the world are entered in the weeklong competition presented by Honor Philippines-titles are at stake in the men’s and women’s singles and doubles, as well as junior singles categories.

‘Gentry, the biggest tennis open tournament in the Philippines in its second year, gives every player the hope of being recognized and competing against the best,’ Gentry Open and Gentry Timepieces President Hayb ‘Pareng Hayb’ Anzures told a press conference at the BGC on Saturday.

‘There are many Filipino tennis players not just here in the country but also from the United States who are coming to compete in the event, and there are some players around Asia, like in Singapore, who will also see action,’ Anzures said. ‘This is going to be a low-key competition for Filipinos against the world.’

Patino will have his hands full with the country’s No. 1 AJ Lim, who he beat in the final last year, and reigning women’s titlist Tennielle Madis, both coming back.

With Patino in the press conference were Philippine Bottling Beverages General Manager Thor Mutuc, Skywarrior Philippines Yathart Vidrohi Bharwadj, Honor Philippines Vice President Stephen Cheng, and Beauty Elements Ventures Brand Manager Nana Borja.

Anzures announced that a total of P3 million in cash is at stake, with the men’s singles open winner taking home P400,000-an increase from last year’s P300,000- and the women’s open singles winner getting P200,000-double that of last year’s prize.

He added that they are still finalizing other categories before announcing the junior, inter-school, Class B, and legends divisions.

‘We really want to continue our mission of building the future of Philippine tennis, one match at a time,’ Anzures said. ‘We just want to build a sustainable platform at home to give Filipino tennis players more opportunities to compete and develop and inspire the players who will follow them.’

Patino beat Lim in the final, 2-6, 5-7, 6-4, 3-1 (ret.), while Madis defeated Stefi Aludo, 6-2, 6-0, on the women’s side.

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Threat actors are increasingly exploiting AI systems, development tools and software supply chains to launch faster and more sophisticated attacks, according to cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike.

In a recent online briefing on the company’s latest Global Threat Report, CrowdStrike head of counter adversary operations Adam Meyers said organizations can no longer treat AI solely as a productivity tool and must begin securing it as a critical part of their digital infrastructure. ‘Securing AI is absolutely critical,’ Meyers said. ‘The expanding AI attack surface is being targeted by threat actors, ‘he said.

He noted that cybercriminals are attacking AI from multiple angles-from abusing AI-powered chatbots to consume costly computing resources to exploiting vulnerabilities in AI infrastructure platforms to deploy ransomware.

He said the growing use of AI-assisted software development has also created new risks for organizations. As developers increasingly rely on AI coding assistants, Meyers said the technology automatically downloads software packages and dependencies in real time to complete programming tasks. While this accelerates development, Meyers warned it also creates opportunities for attackers to poison software repositories or compromise developer accounts, allowing malicious code to spread quickly across organizations.

‘If you ask AI to code something for you, it’s going to start pulling down packages that it thinks it needs,’ he said. ‘That is happening with complete automation, and people are often not stopping to inspect those packages.’

According to CrowdStrike, recent software supply chain attacks have affected repositories that collectively recorded tens of millions of downloads each week, illustrating how rapidly malicious code can proliferate once trusted development channels are compromised.

The company also highlighted the growing role of AI in offensive cyber operations.

Meyers said threat actors, particularly those linked to China, are leveraging AI to accelerate vulnerability research and exploit newly disclosed software flaws in record time.

He noted that Chinese cyber groups have invested heavily in weaponizing vulnerabilities over the past several years, with AI significantly reducing the time needed to develop working exploits. ‘As we’ve seen with AI, it is extremely capable of helping find and exploit vulnerabilities, especially when information about those vulnerabilities is already publicly available,’ he said.

CrowdStrike warned that exploitation windows have narrowed dramatically, with some critical vulnerabilities being weaponized within hours of public disclosure. This leaves organizations with little time to respond using traditional monthly patching cycles.

‘The month-long patch cycle is obsolete,’ Meyers said, adding that companies should move toward automated remediation, accelerated patch management, and stronger exposure management to prioritize the most critical vulnerabilities.

Beyond securing AI applications, organizations must also strengthen the governance surrounding AI deployments.

Meyers said companies should view AI models as interchangeable components, placing greater emphasis on building secure ‘harnesses’ and operational controls around them rather than relying solely on the capabilities of any single model.

He cited CrowdStrike’s own experience, where applying the appropriate framework significantly improved the accuracy of AI-assisted vulnerability research by reducing false positives and producing more reliable results.

Open-weight AI models will also play an increasingly important role, he said, as organizations seek lower-cost alternatives to proprietary frontier models while maintaining flexibility to deploy AI securely for specific business functions.

Looking ahead, CrowdStrike expects more domain-specific AI models designed for specialized tasks, offering greater consistency and more predictable outputs.

The company urged organizations to complement AI adoption with comprehensive threat visibility, managed threat hunting, and stronger identity protection to prevent attackers from moving from compromised developer environments into enterprise cloud systems.

‘Threat actors continue to evolve and find new ways to attack,’ Meyers said. ‘Organizations need stronger guardrails, better intelligence and the right security controls to stay ahead.’ As AI becomes deeply embedded across enterprise operations, CrowdStrike said securing the technology itself must become as important as using it to improve productivity, warning that the organizations that fail to protect their AI environments could inadvertently provide cybercriminals with powerful new attack vectors.

THE Luzon Economic Corridor (LEC) is set to add another European country to its growing list of international partners, Finance Secretary Frederick Go said on Friday.

Go did not identify the incoming partner, saying the country will be revealed during the first LEC Investment Forum scheduled for September 10 and 11 in Manila.

‘Last year, we had two partners in the Luzon Economic Corridor, the US and Japan,’ Go said in his keynote speech at the Economic Journalists Association of the Philippines’ Economic Forum in Manila City.

‘Today, we have eight more partners in the Luzon Economic Corridor . . . And one more European country is set to become the newest addition to the LEC,’ he added.

The latest addition would bring the number of international partners beyond the Philippines, US and Japan to nine, while the LEC’s existing international partners are Australia, Canada, Denmark, France, Italy, South Korea, Sweden and the United Kingdom.

The corridor links Subic Bay, Clark, Manila and Batangas, connecting major manufacturing, logistics and trade centers.

The Philippines, US and Japan launched the corridor in April 2024 as the first Partnership for Global Infrastructure and Investment corridor in the Indo-Pacific.

The expanded partnership is expected to support infrastructure development through financing, technical assistance and private-sector investment in areas including transport, energy and digital infrastructure.

On the other hand, the upcoming investment forum is expected to bring together around 600 international investors, industry executives, project developers and government officials.

The three founding partners will co-host the event, which will feature infrastructure projects seeking financing and private-sector participation.

Discussions will cover advanced manufacturing, digital connectivity, energy, transportation and logistics, and private capital.

The US Trade and Development Agency, which is sponsoring the forum, said the event will also include project showcases, networking sessions and site visits to prospective projects in Subic Bay, Clark and Batangas.

The agency described the LEC as the country’s main economic corridor, with the four areas accounting for about half of the country’s economy.

For many seniors, the family home holds decades of memories-holiday gatherings, children’s milestones, quiet evenings with a partner. Moving to a smaller space or senior community can feel like leaving part of oneself behind. Yet downsizing does not require abandoning what matters most. With thoughtful planning, seniors can reduce square footage while carrying forward the items, stories, and comforts that define home.

Experts emphasize starting early. Give yourself at least three to six months-ideally longer-before a move. Rushing heightens stress and poor decisions. Professional organizers and senior move managers note that beginning the process while still healthy and independent allows more control and less emotional overwhelm. Measure the new space carefully and create a simple floor plan. Knowing exact dimensions of rooms, closets, and wall space prevents the common mistake of packing items that simply will not fit.

Work room by room rather than attempting the entire house at once. Begin with lower-emotion areas such as linen closets, bathrooms, or the kitchen pantry. Practical must-haves-everyday dishes, toiletries, frequently worn clothes-build momentum and decision-making confidence before tackling more sentimental spaces. Professional organizers recommend sorting into clear categories: keep, gift to family or friends, donate or sell, and discard. Avoid a ‘maybe’ pile; it merely postpones decisions and recreates clutter. The four- or five-pile method (keep, gift, sell, donate, trash) appears repeatedly in guidance from sources including US News and senior living experts.

Sentimental items pose the greatest challenge. Photo albums, letters, children’s artwork, heirloom furniture, and collections often feel inseparable from identity. Digitization offers a powerful solution. Scan or photograph photos, documents, and artwork; many services convert old media into digital files that fit on a small device or cloud storage. For collections-china sets, figurines, or sports memorabilia-keep the two or three most meaningful pieces and photograph the rest arranged as they once were. Framing a favorite letter or creating a digital photo book preserves the memory without consuming physical space.

Passing items to loved ones transforms loss into legacy. Invite family members to identify pieces they would value. Distribute heirlooms while you can still share the stories behind them. This approach, recommended by senior living resources, reframes letting go as intentional giving. One professional organizer notes that ‘honoring the item’ by recounting its history often makes parting easier. If adult children lack space or interest, consider donating to charities, historical societies, or community groups where the objects continue to serve a purpose.

Select ‘significant touchstones’-a favorite chair, a piece of art, a small collection of books or photographs-that will help the new space feel familiar and supportive of identity. Therapists and geriatric experts highlight that familiar objects provide continuity and can ease the transition, particularly for those concerned about cognitive changes. Focus on items used regularly or that genuinely spark joy rather than those kept out of obligation.

Professional help can make the process smoother. Senior move managers specialize in guiding older adults through downsizing with empathy and efficiency. In a YouTube video, professional move manager Theresa Brune of Simplify It, LLC, answers common questions about timing, mental preparation, planning, and estate sales, stressing baby steps and early action. Another useful resource is the PBS segment ‘Downsize to Rightsize,’ which profiles a senior move manager who helps clients turn overwhelming transitions into meaningful rightsizing after witnessing his own mother’s positive experience in assisted living. Videos such as ‘Senior Move Management Tips | How To Downsize and Declutter Without The Overwhelm’ and ’20 Tips for Streamlining Your Space in Retirement’ from the Sixty and Me channel offer practical, experience-based advice on layout awareness, emotional hurdles, and systems that work for older adults.

Involve trusted family or friends carefully. Their presence can provide physical help with lifting and an outside perspective on what is truly essential, but decisions should remain with the senior whenever possible. Listen more than direct. Share stories about objects as they surface; the reminiscing itself becomes part of processing the change.

Financial and practical benefits often follow emotional ones. Selling unused furniture, jewelry, or collectibles through estate sales, consignment, or online marketplaces can generate funds while clearing space. Reducing maintenance, utilities, and property costs frees resources for experiences, travel, or health needs. Many who complete the process later report greater freedom and less daily stress.

Downsizing succeeds when it prioritizes people and meaning over possessions. Digitize memories, gift with intention, keep only what serves the life ahead, and allow time for both practical sorting and emotional reflection. The result is not a diminished life but a lighter, more intentional one in which the things that truly matter-relationships, stories, and a sense of home-travel with you. With preparation and the right support, seniors can step into a smaller space that still feels completely their own.

WITH one of the most anticipated Marvel games this year, PlayStation is set to release a limited-edition console bundle and accessories for Marvel’s Wolverine.

One month after its presentation at San Diego Comic-Con, PlayStation revealed the first look at the PS5 Digital Edition-Marvel’s Wolverine Battle Yellow and Wolverine Adamantium Limited Edition bundles in a blog post, featuring a warmongering look at the console and DualSense controller.

First, the console wears Insomniac’s Battle Reborn suit and claws with Wolverine’s design, adopting its iconic yellow-and-black color scheme. Additionally, it takes the intense claw marks in the hood, highlighting one of Wolverine’s iconic marks. The DualSense controller, meanwhile, shares the same style but inverted. Its color scheme takes on black-and-yellow, still featuring the Marvel character’s iconic claw marks. The Adamantium design, inspired by the hero’s skeleton and claws, shares the same features, but would instead have a strong metallic finish. It wears a silver-and-black color scheme, inverted for its DualSense controller as well.

‘I wanted to show Wolverine at his fiercest for Marvel’s Wolverine Limited Edition PS5 Console bundle and accessories. I still draw all my artwork traditionally, so the opportunity to marry cutting-edge hardware with the energy and looseness of hand-drawn ink is incredibly exciting,’ said Jock, the graphic artist who designed the skin. Those who already own the PS5 Slim or PS5 Pro console may instead opt for its console covers, made available where direct.playstation.com is present. The Pro Covers and DualSense Wireless Controllers can also be bought separately.

There is no price yet for PlayStation 5 Digital Edition-Marvel’s Wolverine Battle Yellow Limited Edition Bundle in the Philippines so its availability remains uncertain. The PlayStation 5 Console Cover for Battle Yellow is priced at ?4,767 SRP, while the Adamantium variant has no price, making its availability uncertain as well. Meanwhile, the DualSense Wireless Controllers for both designs are priced at ?5,411 SRP.

Pre-orders will start on August 19 at 10 am local time.

On August 9, the 22nd People’s Ball honored 21 outstanding Filipino Americans and an organization at Newark’s Airport Marriott-evidence that Filipino America’s unglamorous, uncelebrated labor has been the load-bearing wall of this community for decades.

Once a year, the ritual reverses itself. The physicians, the diplomats, and the organizers who have spent careers deliberately out of frame are pulled forward and set, briefly, at the center of the room. This year, on August 9, the Newark Liberty International Airport Marriott hosted the 22nd iteration of that reversal, honoring 21 outstanding Filipino Americans-individuals, two husband-and-wife pairs, and one community organization-at a midday luncheon that behaves less like a gala than a family reunion that happens to have a printed program.

What distinguishes this year’s ceremony is the sheer density of history compressed into a few hours. Five decades of nursing innovation. Diplomatic postings spanning continents. A gelato chef trained in Italy. A community group that fed roughly 450 people through the worst of a pandemic. I have tracked a number of these names for years – watched the work accumulate long before any institution thought to attach an award to it – and reading through the full roster, a through-line emerges unmistakably: this is a diaspora fluent in loyalty to two flags at once, and unwilling to shortchange either. Fiesta Talks Magazine will carry the fuller version for its readership of more than 7,000.

The afternoon also received a genuine Broadway benediction. William Michals-who made his Broadway debut as the Beast in Disney’s Beauty and the Beast and later played Emile de Becque in Lincoln Center Theater’s Tony Award-winning revival of South Pacific-performed alongside Desi Oakley, the original Jenna in the first national tour of Waitress, who later starred as Roxie Hart in Chicago on Broadway.

The patriotism on display here runs in two directions simultaneously, and nobody in the room treats that as a contradiction requiring resolution. This year’s honorees embody that duality precisely: a mayor who took his oath of office in a New Jersey borough hall and never once stopped calling Baler, Aurora home; a nurse who spent thirty years inside a New York City government office safeguarding the public health of the city that adopted her; a community that will mount a Sinulog procession one weekend and Jersey City’s largest Veterans Parade the next.

Diplomatic and Civic Leadership

Ambassador Senen T. Mangalile received the Diplomatic Excellence and Leadership Award. He has served as Philippine Consul General in New York since 2023 – a name I’ve tracked for years – and departs next for Cambodia as Ambassador. Mayor Arvin Amatorio, honored with the Distinguished Public Service and Community Leadership Award, has been Mayor of Bergenfield, New Jersey, since 2019, reelected unopposed. Pam Andes earned the Community Liaison and Public Service Award as scheduler for Jersey City Mayor James Solomon, having organized the city’s first Veterans Parade.

Health and Nursing

Dr. Elvy G. Barroso received the Distinguished Leadership Award in Tuberculosis Prevention after thirty-one years with NYC’s Bureau of Tuberculosis Control; her work has held my attention for a long time. Warly Remegio, DNP, RN, took home the Transformational Leadership in Nursing Education Award as System VP for Nursing Education at Hartford HealthCare and a 2024 Modern Healthcare 40 Under 40 honoree. Janet Mary Cuaycong was recognized with the Gerontological Nursing and Rehabilitation Care Award for developing the ‘STRIDE’ framework at Mount Sinai West. Dr. Jamille Nagtalon-Ramos received the University Healthcare and Leadership Award as a Rutgers-Camden scholar researching Filipina American reproductive health.

‘None of them were choosing one flag over the other. None of them had to.’

Daisy Briones Macadaeg, BSN, RN, earned the Legacy of Care and Compassion Award as a thirty-six-year ICU nurse at Englewood Health with a long record of medical missions in the Philippines. Edynne Baclay-Loquellano received the Nursing and Community Service Award as Assistant Director of Nursing and 2025 president of JCI Philippine-New York. Ramona Sansait Gapasin was honored with the Distinguished Community Builder Award as a fifty-five-year Medical Laboratory Scientist who leads the Ladies for Rizal New Jersey Chapter USA. And Dr. Francisco ‘Kits’ Reyes and Corazon ‘Cora’ Cajucom Reyes together received the Lifetime Empowerment Couple Award for Healing, Heritage and Humanitarian Service-a retired surgeon and a corporate nurse, both names dear to me well before this award reached them.

Education and Business

Rosemarie Espiritu-Parreño received the Lifetime Achievement Award after nearly six decades teaching, including three at CUNY, and a stint as a New York Times ESOL Teacher of the Year. Michael Molin earned the Banking Excellence and Cultural Impact Award as First VP and Retail Banking Branch Leader at Valley Bank, with twenty-five years advocating financial literacy. Senen Cabalfin received the Humanitarian Service and Community Leadership Award as a nurse turned entrepreneur building group homes for elders across New Jersey and Florida. And Myk Alba took the Business and Community Partnership Award as a pastor and marketer whose creative work has touched Apple Studios, Netflix, and Marvel.

Arts and Artisanship

Francia Michelle Magsaysay received the Culinary Artisanship and Cultural Heritage Award as an Italy-trained gelato master who now runs Francy’s Artisanal Ice Cream in Bergenfield. Marcos ‘Ping’ Panlilio earned the Creative Excellence in Sustainable Design Award after four decades in landscape architecture, now fashioning sustainable Filipiniana garments from reclaimed textiles. And Rosalinda Medina Rupel received the Civic Leadership and Community Empowerment Award as a former UNDP planner, librarian, and stage actress who now chairs PAFCOM’s board.

Stewardship and Community

Ria Serrano received the Intergenerational Impact Award as Executive Director of PACCAL, running wellness programming for elders and mentorship for young professionals. Airein and Glenn Butler earned the Philippine Environmental Advocates Award for spreading marine literacy through Beneath the Sea-Ocean Pals across the Philippines.

Bayanihan

Cebuanos Engaging in Building Unity, Inc. (CEBU Inc.) received the Bayanihan Award for running the pandemic-era Gasa sa Gugma program, which fed roughly 450 peopleSet the twenty-one names side by side and a pattern surfaces. Surgeon and nurse, diplomat and gelato chef, librarian-turned-actress and reformed landscape architect, banker and bureau official – the arcs never rhyme, and they were never meant to; each was assembled out of a different set of accidents, ambitions, and inherited obligations. And yet nearly every one of them has a moment where the path should have broken and instead simply changed direction: a career interrupted by illness, a homeland traded for an unfamiliar coastline, a profession set aside for something more urgent than the profession itself. The particulars differ from name to name; the underlying grammar does not. These are people who took displacement, disease, or grief – the raw, undignified material of a life disrupted – and built something load-bearing, something the rest of us have been quietly standing on for years without asking who built it.

There is a patriotism beneath all of it, and it is worth naming outright rather than leaving it as ambient texture. We tend to narrate the diaspora through its most visible exports – athletes on a podium, entertainers on a marquee, capital moving through a remittance line – because visibility is what journalism instinctively reaches for. What this roster actually reveals is quieter, less photogenic, and considerably more durable: a tuberculosis nurse decorated by both the CDC and the Philippine presidency, an honor that requires two governments to independently arrive at the same verdict about the same life; a mayor’s scheduler who organized a city’s first Veterans Parade, a gesture aimed not inward at her own community but outward, toward the servicemen and women who serve this country regardless of where their families once came from; a couple whose forty-year marriage has quietly supported causes on both sides of the Pacific, uninterrupted by distance or decade. Empowerment, as this event quietly insists on defining it, is not spectacle and was never meant to be. It is simply overdue credit, issued decades late, to people who never once mistook loyalty to one flag for a betrayal of the other – who understood, long before anyone handed them a plaque to confirm it, that devotion doesn’t have to be divided between two countries. It can be given fully to both.

The People’s Ball performs this same act every year, and its persistence is itself a kind of argument: it takes the unglamorous, uncompensated labor of holding a community together – the scheduling, the mentoring, the thirty-one-year tenures inside government offices nobody thinks to romanticize – and enters it into the record before it can dissolve into anonymity, the way most quiet labor eventually does. But the ceremony itself, the luncheon, the citations read aloud into a hotel ballroom microphone, is not where the real work happens. The real transmission happens elsewhere, in the room’s periphery, in the folding chairs at the back and the doorways near the kitchen: in the younger nurses, diplomats, and organizers standing at the edges, watching their elders receive applause for work that was never done for applause, quietly absorbing the one lesson this luncheon exists to teach-that patriotism, practiced twice over and sustained long enough without ever being asked to choose a side, eventually stops being a personal virtue and becomes, instead, something you hand down.

The Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) Eastern Visayas (Region 8), in collaboration with 143 local government units (LGUs) in the region, has released P1.59 billion in social pension funds to indigent senior citizens during the first semester of 2026.

Lawyer Jonalyndie Chua, DSWD-8 information officer, on Tuesday said the program benefited 267,003 senior citizens in the first quarter and 263,315 in the second quarter, with each qualified beneficiary receiving P6,000 for six months.

The beneficiaries are senior citizens who are not receiving a pension from the government or private institutions.

‘In line with Republic Act No. 11315, or the Community-Based Monitoring System (CBMS) Act, the DSWD has officially adopted CBMS data as the primary basis for identifying and selecting qualified beneficiaries of the social pension program. The transition supports the government’s commitment to utilizing updated, localized, and data-driven information in delivering responsive social protection services,’ Chua said in a phone interview.

The DSWD released the funds to LGUs through the Transfer of Funds (ToF) modality, under which the agency transfers the budget for social protection programs directly to local governments.

According to Chua, the arrangement allows for faster and more efficient distribution of stipends by reducing logistical bottlenecks.

‘Our LGUs are in a better position to distribute the assistance since they are aware of the situation in their localities, such as the distance of communities from the payout centers, availability of senior citizens and local events,’ Chua added.

Each qualified indigent senior citizen receives a stipend of P1,000 per month for the entire year, with the funds released quarterly.

Pursuant to the Expanded Senior Citizens Act of 2010, the Social Pension Program for Indigent Senior Citizens is a government intervention designed to improve the living conditions of poor older persons.

The assistance helps augment their capacity to meet daily subsistence and medical needs, reducing the incidence of hunger and helping prevent neglect, abuse, and deprivation.

In 2025, DSWD-8 released P3.31 billion in social pension funds to more than 276,000 senior citizens enrolled in the program.

The year was 1882. Our national hero Jose Rizal landed in Naples, Italy. It was his first time in Europe. I could imagine the wide-eyed look on his face and the sense of wonder he might have felt upon setting foot on European soil. He didn’t stay long in Naples, but it left an impression on him; the hustle and bustle of local life and the scenic views of the coastal city.

We can’t all be national heroes (maybe just the main character of our own stories), but we can still visit Naples and maybe experience the same sense of wide-eyed wonder as Jose Rizal.

Lively (or Chaotic?) Naples

I left Naples’ train station with a sense of excitement and wonder knowing that I’ll be visiting a new city. I’ve heard from other travelers how chaotic or in other peoples’ words ‘lived in’ the city was. I saw clothes hanging from the balcony or windows of someone’s apartment. Some buildings looked old and worn out, not really out of place when around centuries old churches or structures. There was also random vandalism on walls (on a side note: I think whoever made those felt like some master painter from the age of enlightenment or the Renaissance period, I’m projecting of course).

I wandered along the narrow streets and weaved in and out of alleys. People on bicycles and scooters whizzed by from the front and back without caring for the pedestrians they might run into. I might add that Italians are a jolly bunch. Boisterous conversations often took place (I had no idea what they were talking about) and I would hear people shouting at each other from their windows (I wasn’t entirely sure if they were arguing or not).

I’m not a big football fan, but I would casually look at the box score if the World Cup was on. However, the ubiquitous prevalence of Diego Maradona on walls and souvenirs was a pleasant surprise (sidebar: I didn’t know who he was until I visited Naples). I later found out he became the unofficial patron saint of the city (I saw a mural of him dressed like a priest), after bringing the city multiple championships. They embraced his working-class background and considered him as one of their own.

I sat down and ate a Neapolitan pizza at a restaurant I stumbled upon. I’ve met a few travelers that said they saw themselves living in Metro Manila and others saying the exact opposite. I’ve felt the same contradictory feelings many times over. I thought about how similar Naples was to Metro Manila with its mix of noise and chaos. Maybe I’m just projecting something I’m familiar with to feel a semblance of home or maybe we’re carrying a bit of home wherever we go.

Feeling Royal in Caserta

I looked for a day trip that’s close to Naples and discovered that the UNESCO World Heritage-listed Royal Palace of Caserta was approximately just under an hour away. I find castles fascinating to be honest. Come to think of it, the extremely rich haven’t changed much, some still like flaunting their wealth.

Architect Luigi Vanvitelli planned the castle in the 18th century. He followed the vision of Charles of Bourbon who wanted to have a castle that rivaled those found in Madrid and Versailles. The walk up to the palace did remind me of the one I visited in Versailles in France. The grand staircase with its statues and details elicits a sense of awe from visitors (myself included). The staircase doesn’t just connect floors, it’s meant for a dramatic/theatrical ascent.

Since I like watching movies, I discovered a few fun facts about the palace. Some movies that used this complex as a filming location include Star Wars Episodes I and 2, Mission Impossible III, The Two Popes, and Conclave just to name a few.

With more than a thousand rooms and a massive floor area, it’s improbable to see everything in one day. Some of the highlights of a visit include the Throne Room, Palatine Chapel, Hall of Astrea, and Rooms of the Four Seasons. One of the reasons people visit is the huge garden and park that surround the palace complex. Visitors can simply wander around the property after exploring the palace. The curated palace contrasts Naples’ beautiful chaos.

Naples and Caserta are possible destinations you can add during your first (or second or third or so on and so forth) visit. The chaos of Naples adds to its charm while the Caserta Royal Palace provides a contrast and break from the frenzy of the city. It’s convenient to get to either place by train from Rome. I recommend booking train tickets in advance to not only save money but to also get the schedule you want.