Category: Business Mirror

THE business community has remained focused on trade and investment opportunities despite recent political developments, Trade Secretary Ma. Cristina Roque said.

Speaking to reporters, Roque said conversations with the private sector under the Department of Trade and Industry’s (DTI) purview continue to center on expanding trade, attracting investments and exploring new business opportunities.

‘I haven’t spoken to them about the politics,’ Roque said when asked about the business sector’s perception of recent political events. ‘Business as usual.’

Pressed on whether the business community appeared unfazed by the political noise, the trade chief said such issues have not been raised in her engagements with investors and trade partners.

‘We haven’t spoken about that. It’s just to move forward,’ she said.

Asked whether business groups had expressed concerns about the political situation, Roque replied: ‘Well, not at our level, at least. Since we’re focused on trade, they just want to increase trade and find other opportunities.’

Her remarks come as some economists and business observers have warned that prolonged political uncertainty could weigh on economic prospects.

Last week, former Bangko Sentral (BSP) deputy governor Diwa Guinigundo said in a commentary that the Philippine economy could become the ‘largest collateral damage’ from the political tensions that have gripped the Senate in recent weeks.

Guinigundo also argued that sustained political instability could eventually affect investor confidence and the country’s long-term economic viability.

Roque, however, indicated that discussions involving the DTI and its stakeholders remain focused on economic activity, trade promotion and investment generation.

The trade chief has recently been involved in talks with foreign governments and business groups aimed at expanding market access, attracting investments and strengthening economic partnerships, including discussions with Egypt on trade cooperation and potential business opportunities.

San Miguel Corp. (SMC) said the New Manila International Airport’s (NMIA) first runway will be available by the second quarter of 2028.

SMC Chairman and CEO Ramon S. Ang also said during the company’s stockholders’ meeting that its logistics center may be completed by the end of the year.

‘The logistics center, which requires about 7 million (cubic meters) of sand, which was supposed to be finished by 2025, but now I think we’ll be able to finish it by the end of 2026,’ Ang said. ‘But at least the first runway can operate in 2028.’

NMIA in Bulakan, Bulacan sits on a 2,500-hectare of coastal site and is aimed at decongesting the Ninoy Aquino International Airport, still the country’s main gateway despite its state.

San Miguel also won the bid to rehabilitate the airport.

The Bulacan airport, worth about P735 billion, is slated to begin phase 1 operations in late 2028.

The phase 1 of the project will handle up to 35 million passengers annually. Once fully completed, it is designed to scale up to 100 million passengers per year.

The airport will feature four parallel runways allowing for simultaneous aircraft operations. It includes a passenger terminal with over 1.2 million square meters, and a dedicated cargo terminal.

‘For more than 135 years, generations of San Miguel employees have worked hard and kept their faith in what this company and our country can achieve. We have seen difficult years before, and still we keep building, because San Miguel was built for times like these,’ Ang said.

Cystic fibrosis, or CF, is a lifelong genetic condition that affects how the body produces mucus, sweat, and digestive fluids. More than 100,000 people across 94 countries have been diagnosed with this disease, according to the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation, and each patient has had to learn how to adapt with tools, therapies, and support from families and care teams.

Although living with CF can feel demanding at times, ongoing medical advances continue to improve quality of life for many patients. From using a reliable nebulizer kit to directly deliver medication to the lungs to practicing airway clearance techniques that help loosen mucus, there are now more ways to manage the condition.

To better understand why cystic fibrosis requires such consistent care, it helps to look at the changes happening inside the body and how modern treatment approaches respond to them.

How Cystic Fibrosis Changes the Way the Body Produces Mucus

The body naturally produces mucus to protect sensitive tissues and keep organs functioning properly. Under normal conditions, mucus stays thin and slippery enough to trap germs while still moving easily through the body. When you have cystic fibrosis, that process changes dramatically.

The condition develops because of mutations in the CFTR gene, which helps regulate the movement of salt and water in and out of cells. When this gene does not function correctly, mucus loses much of its moisture and becomes unusually thick and sticky. Instead of helping protect the body, the mucus begins clogging narrow passageways in organs such as the lungs, pancreas, and intestines.

Because mucus buildup happens continuously, cystic fibrosis requires ongoing management rather than short-term treatment. Doctors often monitor lung health, digestion, growth, and nutritional status closely to prevent complications from becoming more serious over time.

Why the Lungs and Digestive System Are Most Affected

Breathing problems tend to be common with cystic fibrosis, largely because the lungs are especially vulnerable to mucus buildup. Once the mucus thickens, it can block airways and create an environment where bacteria thrive more easily. Then, infections develop and inflammation follows, which may gradually damage lung tissue if not treated properly.

Many people with CF deal with chronic coughing, chest congestion, shortness of breath, or recurring respiratory infections. Even minor illnesses can become more difficult to recover from because mucus makes it harder for the lungs to clear bacteria. Some individuals also develop sinus infections due to blocked drainage pathways in the nose and sinuses.

The digestive system faces a different but equally frustrating set of challenges because thick secretions can block the pancreas and stop digestive enzymes from reaching the intestines. Without enough enzymes, the body struggles to break down food and absorb nutrients properly. As a result, those with CF may experience poor weight gain, stomach discomfort, greasy stools, or vitamin deficiencies despite maintaining a healthy appetite.

Children with cystic fibrosis sometimes experience delayed growth because their bodies cannot absorb enough nutrients to support development. Adults may also find it difficult to maintain weight during periods of illness or increased lung strain. Thus, nutrition becomes a major part of CF treatment rather than simply a supportive recommendation

Over time, cystic fibrosis may also contribute to complications involving the liver, reproductive system, or blood sugar regulation. Some patients eventually develop CF-related diabetes after years of pancreatic damage.

How Modern Treatments Help Patients Manage Daily Life

Daily treatment routines for cystic fibrosis can feel demanding at times, but they play a central role in protecting lung function and reducing complications. Most care plans combine several therapies that target different aspects of the condition to help the patient manage symptoms as effectively as possible.

Airway clearance therapy remains one of the most important parts of treatment. Chest physiotherapy techniques help loosen mucus so it can leave the lungs more easily through coughing. To make these exercises more effective, many people use inhaled medications that open airways or thin mucus beforehand. Devices such as nebulizers transform liquid medicine into a breathable mist, ensuring treatment reaches deep into the lungs where it’s needed most.

Alongside airway clearance, various medications target specific challenges. Doctors may prescribe antibiotics to treat infections, bronchodilators to improve airflow, or anti-inflammatory medications to reduce irritation. In recent years, CFTR modulator therapies have transformed treatment by addressing the underlying protein defect linked to CF. While these medications do not cure the condition, they can improve lung function and reduce complications for eligible patients.

Nutrition support adds another layer of care. Pancreatic enzyme supplements help the body digest food more effectively, while high-calorie diets and vitamin supplementation maintain weight and energy. Exercise ties the plan together by strengthening endurance and supporting lung health. Physical activity helps move mucus out of the airways more efficiently, complementing medical therapies. Even moderate activities such as walking, swimming, or cycling can provide noticeable benefits when done consistently.

What Long-Term Management Looks Like Today

Living with cystic fibrosis requires daily effort, but treatment advances have changed the outlook for many patients. More people with CF are now reaching adulthood, pursuing careers, traveling, and maintaining active lifestyles than in previous generations.

Consistency often makes the biggest difference in long-term care. Patients who keep regular appointments, follow medication schedules, and maintain good nutrition stay ahead of complications and give their bodies the support they need. Acting quickly when infections appear also helps prevent more serious problems. Over time, these habits become part of routines that fit alongside the demands of everyday life.

Although CF remains complex, growing medical knowledge continues to improve management. Better treatments, personalized approaches, and the right emotional support allow many people with CF to live fuller, more independent lives than ever before.

Understanding cystic fibrosis means recognizing how it affects your body and learning how to manage it step by step. From airway clearance to emotional support, each element of care contributes to a fuller, healthier life. And as treatment options continue to expand, the outlook grows more hopeful. If you or someone you love is navigating CF, remember that knowledge and consistency are powerful allies. With the right strategies, you can regain a sense of control and move forward with clarity and confidence.

A moment early on in Disclosure Day will instinctively feel familiar to anyone who grew up with Steven Spielberg films. A TV weather report predicts hail. The camera pans downward, from television set to kitchen table. Plinking sounds begin. Cereal falls into a bowl.

‘Those were Froot Loops,’ Spielberg says, smiling. ‘My favorite.’

Spielberg’s latest, like some of his earliest and most beloved films, again concerns what might fall from above. Disclosure Day, which Universal Pictures releases June 11, returns Hollywood’s preeminent big-screen craftsman to one of his most abiding questions: Are we alone?

Coming nearly half a century after Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Disclosure Day is a grand bookend for one of the most cosmically-minded moviemakers of our time, whose dreams of extraterrestrial life have shaped all of ours. It’s a distant answer to the final notes of Close Encounters. But while Spielberg grants his 1977 film was ‘speculative,’ Disclosure Day, he insists, is the real deal.

‘It’s my first film that will be considered science fiction that I do not consider to be science fiction,’ Spielberg said in a recent interview. ‘It’s much more reflective of the world as it is evolving and discoveries that are being made as we speak.’

Spielberg, at 79, is trying to revive and reconsider the alien wonder that’s long lingered in his mind, from E.T. to War of the Worlds. Disclosure Day, Spielberg’s first summer movie in a decade, is already being hailed as one of his best in years. But this time, Spielberg is testing whether he can conjure some of his trademark movie magic less with imagination than with conviction. ‘I’ve been a believer since I made Close Encounters 50 years ago,’ Spielberg says. ‘But I would always say: Until I’ve seen a UAP or a UFO with my own eyes, I’m not going to categorically state that life from out there has come here.

‘But I’ve changed that,’ he adds. ‘I’m now willing to change my mind because of the circumstantial evidence which is overwhelming.’

Aliens again, but different

Disclosure Day stars Josh O’Connor as a cybersecurity whistleblower with government evidence, long suppressed, chronicling a history of alien encounters. Guiding him in his escape from a corporate executive (Colin Firth) trying to keep it all under wraps is the disclosure movement’s leader (Colman Domingo). Meanwhile, a meteorologist named Margaret Fairchild (Emily Blunt) begins having a mysterious epiphany.

When he first began thinking about the movie, Spielberg called up the screenwriter David Koepp, a longtime collaborator who wrote Jurassic Park and War of the Worlds.

‘I said, ‘Sure, what’s it about?” recalls Koepp. ‘And he said, ‘Oh, you know, aliens again. But different this time.”

Spielberg was coming off an unusually long break by his breakneck standards. His 2022 film The Fabelmans pulled from his own childhood, dramatizing his parents’ painful divorce and his own origins as a filmmaker. Spielberg’s first gut-wrenchingly autobiographical movie left him unsure of what was next.

‘It was the hardest question I ever had to ask myself because there was such completion in resolving so many personal issues that I had never aired in public before The Fabelmans,’ Spielberg says.

‘I didn’t care whether people thought The Fabelmans was just a tale, a yarn, or if they cared that it was all true. I didn’t care about that. It was something I did for myself. I always used to say it was $40 million of therapy that I didn’t have to pay for. Universal did,’ he says, laughing.

But Spielberg, having long followed reports of alleged alien encounters, was inspired by the 2023 House Subcommittee on National Security hearing on UAPs: Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena. Among the witnesses was whistleblower and former Air Force intelligence officer David Grusch, who testified that the government concealed a program investigating UAPs.

The Pentagon then denied it. Yet in April, President Donald Trump said the Pentagon is preparing to release some ‘very interesting’ UFO files.

Those 2023 testimonies and others so fueled Spielberg that he produced a 50-page treatment on what would become ‘Disclosure Day.’ During the writing process with Koepp, he texted him more notes, he says, ‘than I’ve ever sent to anyone in my life.’

‘There was a period in there where I believe he re-read the script every single day for a year,’ Koepp says. ‘We’d be in different time zones and I would wake up to 30 or 35 texts from his most current reading of the script. When the leader of the project has that level of commitment, it tends to bring along everyone. You up your game.’

Extraterrestrial empathy

Spielberg has long considered his filmography split in two, between the filmmaker who made Jaws and E.T. and Raiders of the Lost Ark, and the one who, after 1985’s The Color Purple, was increasingly drawn to darker and more serious material with films, like Schindler’s List, Saving Private Ryan and Munich.

Disclosure Day is a kind of bridge between both modes of Spielberg-a thrilling chase movie filled with wonderment that’s nevertheless grounded in reality and recent history.

And its most ardent message is quite earthbound. Blunt’s character’s clarity comes from looking people in the eye. As much as it’s about aliens, Disclosure Day is about empathy.

‘I think every movie should have a great emphasis on empathy because empathy sometimes feels like it’s in short supply,’ Spielberg says. ‘We have it, sometimes we can’t use it. Sometimes it’s not allowed to be used if you want to stay aligned with your friends and your belief systems. But I think empathy is there for all of us.’

Disclosure Day opens in a much different movie world than Spielberg’s earlier alien adventures. It’s one of few big, original studio movies this summer-a moviegoing season that the Jaws filmmaker pioneered. But neither franchise domination, AI nor streaming make Spielberg fret for the future of movies.

‘The audience gives me faith in the movies,’ says Spielberg. ‘Even though the numbers are still not pre-Covid level numbers for any films being released now, it’s more robust than it has been for many years. The audience gives me belief that people still want to congregate in a dark space in the company of strangers to share an experience of a film made by storytellers. And that gives me faith to continue making films.’

Spielberg will turn 80 this December. Around the same age, Martin Scorsese began to frankly ponder how many movies he had left. Spielberg doesn’t think the same way.

‘I never think about how many more I have,’ he says. ‘I’m just hopeful that I will be inspired when something comes along, as I was with Disclosure Day, as I was with Fabelmans, as I was with West Side Story.’

More inspiration is already on the way. Spielberg hopes that his next movie will be a Western. Despite his deep fondness for the genre and an indelible encounter with John Ford, it’s one genre that’s eluded him.

‘I always feel like parts of the Raiders adventure movies are like Westerns,’ he says.

‘Whenever Harrison [Ford] was on a horse, it made me wistful for wanting to direct a full Western, a real Western.’

Margaret Fairchild in Disclosure Day has some echoes with another Spielberg protagonist: Richard Dreyfuss’ Roy Neary in Close Encounters. Both are compelled by a strange force beyond their control. It’s a character type that Spielberg, a compulsive moviemaker, grants he connects with. Disclosure Day is his 35th feature film.

‘I identify with characters who aren’t afraid of mysterious things happening to them,’ Spielberg says, ‘and who are fighting for their survival by trying to discover what they don’t know.’

The death toll in the magnitude 7.8 offshore earthquake in Mindanao rose to 37 as of 6 a.m. Tuesday, the Office of the Civil Defense (OCD) reported.

Those killed are from Sarangani, with a total of 18 deaths, General Santos City, 12, and South Cotabato, 3.

OCD Administrator, Undersecretary Harold Cabreros reported that based on initial assessment, General Santos was the hardest hit by the earthquake, the strongest that hit Mindanao, that wa triggered by movements in the Cotabato Trench.

Enhancing hospital capacity to attend to the injured has been identified as the primary concern.

As of the latest count, 144 persons were injured as the earthquake caused several buildings to collapse, including school buildings.

Nevertheless, Cabreros said the government is ready to respond and address the situation.

He said the uniformed service continues to conduct retrieval operations in the affected areas.

The OCD, which acts as the Secretariat of the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Councill (NDRRMC) is closely monitoring the situation and is now back in the field to attend to the affected communities.

Meanwhile, Cabreros appealed to the public to remain alert, saying aftershocks continue to happen.

The Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology reported that as of 6 a.m., the aftershock count has already reached 989. Of these, 289 are located, and 20 are felt.

The aftershocks range from magnitude 1.3 to 6.7.

He said the OCD and NDRRMC continue to conduct close coordination with local government units and assured full support as directed by President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. and Defense Secretary and NDRRMC Chairperson Gilberto C. Teodoro Jr.

Former Supreme Court Associate Justice Antonio Carpio is sounding the alarm, pressing the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) to formally challenge China’s declarations under the High Seas Treaty.

During a forum sponsored by think tank Stratbase ADR and the French Embassy, Carpio warned that inaction could cost the Philippines an exclusive economic zone (EEZ) ‘larger than our total land area.’

The Biodiversity Beyond National Jurisdiction (BBNJ) treaty, which took effect in January 2026, seeks to safeguard marine life in the high seas.

But when China ratified the pact in December 2025, it declared the treaty ‘doesn’t apply’ to the South China Sea. Beijing insists the waters within its ten-dash line are its ‘national territory,’ leaving no high seas to regulate.

Its declaration also blocks marine protected areas (MPAs), stating these ‘shall not include any area involving any claims of a state to sovereignty.’

Carpio warned that under the international doctrine of acquiescence, silence in the face of a claim is legally treated as consent.

With six months already elapsed since China’s filing, Manila has only until December 2026 to issue a counter-declaration.

‘We don’t want to lose it by sleeping on the job,’ he cautioned.

To go on the offensive, Carpio urged the Philippines to push the treaty’s Conference of Parties to declare MPAs in the South China Sea.

If unanimity cannot be reached, the pact allows approval by a three-fourths vote.

Such a decision would formally recognize the waters as high seas, undercutting Beijing’s assertions.

AMID the chaos engulfing the Senate that is embroiled in a standoff over leadership, senators have separately called for a pause from the power play to better focus on the Mindanao communities affected by Monday’s magnitude 7.8 earthquake in Mindanao.

Sen. Panfilo M. Lacson on Monday called for a timeout in the power play in the Senate, and instead focus on prayers and assistance for communities.

Lacson said that amid the political noise in the Senate, attention must be directed to the suffering of Filipinos in the South in the aftermath of the disaster.

‘Let’s take a break from the Senate power play and pray for the people of Mindanao, especially the fatalities and the injured, as well as those whose properties were damaged and destroyed by the 7.8 magnitude earthquake this morning,’ he said on X.

On Monday morning, a magnitude-7.8 quake hit offshore Sarangani causing a wide swathe of destruction in Mindanao.

The Office of Civil Defense was reported as saying the death toll from the quake stood at 35 as of Monday evening, with over a hundred injured.

Authorities are still assessing the grave devastation wrought on homes and public infrastructure, including roads, bridges and schoolbuildings which were hit at the time when classes opened on Monday.

Sen. Francis Pangilinan echoed Lacson’s call for a pause and said his office was coordinating with disaster response agencies on the ground.

Pangilinan said they are particularly worried over communities in coastal areas that were hard-hit by the quake and tsunami in Sarangani and other parts of Mindanao.

He is pushing for interventions for schoolchildren who suffered trauma on their first day of school.

Also on Monday, Senate President Alan Peter Cayetano called for a pause from the political turf war, even as he remained in a standoff with the new majority bloc led by acting Senate President Sherwin Gatchalian.

Members of the Senate majority bloc have taken steps to help victims of the magnitude 7.8 quake that devastated parts of Mindanao on Monday and invited their colleagues from the minority to join them in this effort.

‘The Senate New Majority stands with the families and communities in Mindanao who are now facing the painful work of rescue, relief, rebuilding and recovery after the powerful earthquake,’ they said in a statement.

They said that they have agreed to donate one month’s salary to help those affected by the disaster.

‘As a personal contribution to the relief effort, members of the Senate New Majority are prepared to donate one month of our salary to help support affected communities,’ they said in the statement.

‘While this is a small contribution, we hope our colleagues in the minority will join us in this effort. After all, we are senators of all Filipino people. This is a moment when the Senate, whatever its internal divisions, can still speak through one act of shared compassion.’

As of early Tuesday, Office of Civil Defense deputy spokesperson Diego Mariano said that as of 6 a.m., the quake left at least 37 people dead, 456 people were injured, and four were reported missing.

It affected 17,689 families or 77,186 people. At least 5,343 families or 19,365 people are staying in evacuation centers.

Beyond the financial value of the contribution, the Senate New Majority sought to stress the emotional weight of the gesture for communities that are still dealing with fear, loss and uncertainty.

‘What we hope to give is not only financial assistance, but a clear message that Mindanao is not facing this burden alone,’ they said.

‘Naniniwala kami na ang unang hakbang ng sinserong pakikiramay ay ang ipaabot sa mga taga-Mindanao ang mensaheng handa ang pamahalaang tumulong sa oras ng pangangailangan,’ they added.

The group said the assistance should follow the needs identified by those on the ground, particularly in areas where families require basic supplies and temporary support while damage assessments continue.

‘Our contribution should go to immediate needs such as food, clean water, medicine, temporary shelter and other assistance identified by local communities and responders on the ground,’ they noted.

The Senate New Majority also widened its appeal beyond the chamber, urging Filipinos who are able to extend assistance to Mindanao through prayer, donations or other forms of help.

‘We ask the entire nation to keep Mindanao in their prayers and, where able, to give in any way they can, because in moments of calamity, every act of kindness becomes part of the country’s healing,’ they expressed.

The group said coordination with government agencies and local officials will be necessary to ensure that assistance supports both immediate relief and the longer process of restoring communities.

‘We will continue to coordinate with the proper national and local authorities to support relief, reconstruction and the safe restoration of essential services in affected areas,’ they added.

Land and human rights are spotlighted in ST (Southern Tagalog) to SF (San Francisco), a free screening of documentaries, short-form works, and music videos, part of MCADxMoving Image, a program of the Museum of Contemporary Art and Design (MCAD) of the De La Salle-College of Saint Benilde (DLS-CSB).

The event looks at culture, society and politics through the media of the moving image-from hybrid documentaries and video essays to narrative experiments, filmed performances, and archival audiovisions.

Meticulously selected by Con Cabrera, a visual artist and independent curator, the lineup gathers works from multimedia collective and organization Southern Tagalog Exposure from Laguna, Philippines, and housing advocates People Power Media from California, USA.

The roster includes documentations of narratives on displacement, oppression, and state violence which are resisted by various manifestations of activism.

The lineup is headlined by 43, a short docu on health workers who were arrested and accused of being members of the New People’s Army during their medical training in Morong, Rizal; and WWIII, an animated music video of a song by Dong Abay, renowned Filipino singer-songwriter, which communicates the collective consciousness of those who question the unjust war perpetrated by those in power.

Likewise included in the series is Red Saga. Produced by Mowelfund Film Institute (MFI), it is a vivid landscape of metaphors on contemporary Philippine politics and a poetic take on the peasant struggle and the protracted people’s war in the Philippine countryside. Oyayi sa Kanlungan ng Digma depicts how militarization drove the Mangyans, Dumagats, and peasants from their homes.

Sa Amin: Our Place narrates the untold story of Filipino activists, artists, and intergenerational families in San Francisco’s South of Market neighborhood in their fight against displacement caused by urban renewal, real estate speculation, and tech booms. Rights is a one-hour pioneering compilation of independently produced human rights-themed short films and public service announcements (PSAs) which exposes the incessant human rights hostilities in the Philippines and serves as an open and continuing call for filmmakers to participate in the growing movement to defend and uphold human rights.

ST (Southern Tagalog) to SF (San Francisco) is free and open to the public. It will run from June 17 to June 19, 2026, from 12 noon to 2 pm.

A talkback with the former members of ST Exposure will be held on June 17. It will be moderated by Mary Ann Pernia, MCAD Learning and Special Projects head.

It will be held at the M302 Case Room of the De La Salle-College of Saint Benilde (DLS-CSB) Taft Campus in Malate, Manila.

Former Supreme Court Associate Justice Antonio Carpio is sounding the alarm, pressing the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) to formally challenge China’s declarations under the High Seas Treaty.

During a forum sponsored by think tank Stratbase ADR and the French Embassy, Carpio warned that inaction could cost the Philippines an exclusive economic zone (EEZ) ‘larger than our total land area.’

The Biodiversity Beyond National Jurisdiction (BBNJ) treaty, which took effect in January 2026, seeks to safeguard marine life in the high seas.

But when China ratified the pact in December 2025, it declared the treaty ‘doesn’t apply’ to the South China Sea. Beijing insists the waters within its ten-dash line are its ‘national territory,’ leaving no high seas to regulate.

Its declaration also blocks marine protected areas (MPAs), stating these ‘shall not include any area involving any claims of a state to sovereignty.’

Carpio warned that under the international doctrine of acquiescence, silence in the face of a claim is legally treated as consent.

With six months already elapsed since China’s filing, Manila has only until December 2026 to issue a counter-declaration.

‘We don’t want to lose it by sleeping on the job,’ he cautioned.

To go on the offensive, Carpio urged the Philippines to push the treaty’s Conference of Parties to declare MPAs in the South China Sea.

If unanimity cannot be reached, the pact allows approval by a three-fourths vote.

Such a decision would formally recognize the waters as high seas, undercutting Beijing’s assertions.

ANY bookworm will tell you that reading a book is a pleasant distraction from the stresses of daily living, a chance to relax and lose yourself to the characters and plot of a page-turning mystery thriller or swoon-worthy romance. Few people realize that both your mind and body benefit when this favorite pastime becomes a regular part of your routine.

FULL-BRAIN WORKOUT

‘Experts describe reading a book as a full-brain workout,’ says Cymbeline Perez-Santiago, MD, Neurologist and Head of the Neurology Unit of top hospital in the Philippines, Makati Medical Center (MakatiMed, www.makatimed.net.ph).

‘In a study conducted in 2020, researchers noted that increased gray matter in the left superior temporal cortex part of the brain, which is crucial to cognitive function, is linked to better reading performance among children. For the older generation, keeping the mind engaged through book reading delays cognitive decline and positively impacts physical and mental health.’

A 2017 survey that tracked over 3,000 adults in a 12-year period discovered that those who specifically read books had a 20 percent reduction in mortality. In a study conducted by Yale University, people added an average of 23 months to their lifespan when they read 30 minutes a day.

‘Reading, of course, broadens one’s vocabulary and knowledge, which proves helpful in entrance exams, job opportunities, and life in general,’ adds Perez-Santiago. ‘Moreover, it develops one’s ability to empathize-to put oneself in other people’s shoes. Experts call this ‘theory of mind,’ or skills needed to build, navigate and maintain social relationships.’

WHY BOOKS?

WHAT is it about a book that makes our mind work differently? Reading words (as opposed to looking at pictures or watching a video) prompts us to use our imagination to supply the imagery that corresponds with the sentences.

‘Books, particularly long-form content, train us to focus and pay attention at a time when the digital world’s fast-paced, short-form content has reduced our attention span,’ explains Perez-Santiago. ‘Reading books also strengthens memory, challenges your analytical thinking, and makes you a better writer.’

But who has the time to pick up a book these days? In a national readership survey commissioned by the National Book Development Board in 2023, the number of Filipino adults who read non-school books in the past 12 months was 42 percent-a major plunge from the 80 percent who read books in 2017.

‘The trick,’ Perez-Santiago points out, ‘is to make it an enjoyable experience, something to look forward to.’

Start by always having a book on hand. Keep a book in your car, your bag, or your desk drawer at work. ‘When you’re waiting in the bank, at a doctor’s appointment, or for a friend to arrive for a meeting, pass the time away by getting in a few pages,’ says Perez-Santiago.

Set doable goals. Does the sight of a thick pocketbook intimidate you? Pick a quick read or go for an anthology of short stories. ‘They can help you build your attention span and ability to focus as you work your way to reading longer stories,’ Perez-Santiago recommends.

‘Also, there are no rules that you should finish a book in a week, or that you should finish one book before starting another. Read several books all at once and go at your own pace. As proven by studies, even a few minutes of reading can do wonders for your health.’