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Frequent class suspensions have led to a 12 to 14-percent decline in Math and Science grades among Grade 4 students, the Second Congressional Commission on Education (EDCOM 2) revealed yesterday.

Aside from the decline, the commission said the suspensions resulted in learning losses equivalent to half to a full school year, with 30 percent of school days in 2023-2024 lost.

‘The school closures have a big effect on the grades of a student. Majority of these (class suspensions) were due to typhoons, earthquakes and other calamities,’ EDCOM 2 noted, adding that 32 days were due to calamities and 12 due to non-teaching tasks.

Earlier, the Department of Education (DepEd) warned that prolonged suspension of face-to-face classes could disrupt students’ learning and development, following Gov. Sol Aragones’ order to suspend in-person classes in all levels in Laguna, citing the need for heightened disaster preparedness.

Coordinating Council of Private Educational Associations (COCOPEA) legal counsel Joseph Noel Estrada questioned this decision, saying: ‘Laguna governor should publicize what the provincial government will do during the two-week suspension of classes as part of disaster preparedness and what it seeks to accomplish after.’

To address the learning crisis, DepEd, for its part, has strengthened its partnership with the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology to ensure class suspension decisions are guided by scientific data, localized risk assessments and safety standards.

The Catholic Educational Association of the Philippines, meanwhile, urged schools to strengthen academic recovery strategies.

‘Schools are encouraged to strengthen their. flexible learning options, lesson compression and continuity plans to minimize learning loss. Let us work together to keep learning going, rain or shine, and ensure every learner’s progress despite disruptions,’ the association said.

Health break

Aside from Laguna, several local government units have also suspended classes due to rising flu and respiratory illness cases.

Quezon Gov. Angelina Tan suspended classes in all levels, both public and private, on Oct. 16 and 17 to serve as a ‘health break’ amid a surge in influenza-like illness, severe respiratory infection and pneumonia in the province.

Meanwhile, Cavite Gov. Abeng Remulla yesterday suspended face-to-face classes in all levels, both public and private, from Oct. 15 to 18 ‘to give way to influenza-like illness surveillance and preparation for The Big One.’

‘During the suspension of face-to-face classes, the alternative delivery mode will be implemented like online classes and modular learning to ensure the uninterrupted learning of the learners,’ Remulla announced.

‘This move is a proactive effort to protect the health and safety of each Caviteño,’ he added.

The Teachers’ Dignity Coalition (TDC) yesterday likewise urged DepEd to postpone the upcoming In-Service Training (INSET) and instead allow a total health break for educators amid the rise in flu and other illnesses affecting schools nationwide.

TDC chairman Benjo Basas said DepEd should suspend the conduct of the INSET scheduled from Oct. 27 to 31 and allow teachers to fully enjoy their health and wellness break, as provided under DepEd Order 12, Series of 2025.

‘However, the same order also recommends the holding of INSET during this period, placing school and division leaders in a dilemma, many of whom opt to conduct INSET for compliance,’ he said.

As a result, he noted, many schools still plan to hold mandatory INSET sessions, effectively defeating the purpose of giving teachers time to rest and recover.

‘Teachers, just like their students, deserve this break. After months of continuous work, from lesson preparation and actual classroom teaching to paperwork and assessments, our teachers need time to rest and recharge,’ he added.

While the INSET is meant to improve teachers’ professional competencies, Basas said it may not be practical to conduct it during a supposed wellness period.

‘In fact, teachers will still spend the week completing school-related tasks such as finalizing learners’ performance outputs and grades for the second quarter, leaving them with no real break at all,’ he said.

He urged the DepEd to review how the INSET is being implemented, noting that the program is funded by public money and should genuinely serve its purpose of developing teachers, not adding to their workload and fatigue.

Basas also acknowledged that INSET can be an opportunity for meaningful discussions on teachers’ welfare, advocacies and issues in the education sector, but only if school heads are supportive and faculty organizations are empowered to assert their rights.

We are within the Pacific Ring of Fire, this we know.

So earthquakes, volcanic eruptions are not new to us, yes.

So much DRRM budget, education, and preparation have been conducted throughout the country, we have been told, yes.

However, were these enough to prepare our people for the recent round of earthquakes, eruptions and typhoons?

You be the judge. What do you think?

This is the first time, though, we are witnessing and experiencing simultaneous quakes, eruptions and typhoons.

No matter how much past DRRM preparation has been done, nothing really prepared us all for the calamities and disasters to hit various places within and outside the Philippines SIMULATANEOUSLY!

Before the Cebu quakes affected various cities, municipalities especially in the North, we remember typhoons that came one after another or almost at the same time in Northern Luzon.

Recently, however, we are witnessing simultaneous quakes in Cebu, in the Visayas, in Luzon, in Mindanao and other parts of the world as well!

Then, there was a typhoon as well.

Then the Mt. Kanlaon eruption.

And more continuing strong aftershocks in already previous strong quake-affected areas!

One precious lesson.

Local, regional, national and international UPDATED, REORIENTED DRRM education, training, preparation, funds, responses are urgently needed to cope with simultaneous natural events, calamities and disasters affecting people, communities, structures, properties, resources.

Wider SIMULTANEOUS COORDINATION among local, regional, national, international private and public responders is now called for.

Another inspiring lesson.

The heartwarming bright light in the midst of destructive calamities is the ever-present BOTTOMLESS WELL OF LOVE AND CONCERN from countless individuals and groups and from all over, for the affected.

To facilitate faster, more effective, more far-reaching response network of support and assistance, one lesson learned is to COLLECTIVELY plan, decide and implement a MORE COORDINATED SYSTEM of data collection, resource/assistance sharing, transport, distribution, monitoring, evaluation of private and public, local, national, global DRRM initiatives.

Another lesson to guide future response.

So many in need, so many were eager to help and reach out. Heavy traffic could have been avoided, faster response and assistance for victims facilitated had there been a prior template for regulating, coordinating multilevel, multisectoral DRRM response and initiatives.

A must from now on as well.

COMMUNITY DATA should already be available showing population number, profile, location to ensure no one is left behind, that all are accounted for and responded to SOONEST and EFFECTIVELY after every calamity.

DRRM initiatives should also prepare for immediate-short-medium-long term-TIME-AREA-BASED responses for all residents of various types of communities – farms, forest, coastal, urban, towns.

One glaring reality was the lack of defined, designated and well-equipped EVACUATION AREAS for different types of community residents.

And URGENT/APPROPRIATE ITEMS/FACILITIES (RED CROSS TENTS) to ensure the immediate-long-term safety, protection and welfare of all affected residents and communities.

‘We need food, water, safe places to sleep and stay in’ immediately after and while the calamities continue.

EMERGENCY/HEALTH NEEDS require immediate attention, medical providers/practitioners, facilities, especially STEADY ELECTRIC/WATER supply!

Please mainstream proper/dedicated DISASTER WASTE SEGREGATION/ MANAGEMENT!

A very important lesson – COMMUNICATION is INDISPENSABLE.

From here on, every community, LGU, resident should be part of a communication network to ensure that everyone is accounted for during calamities and everyone’s immediate, urgent need responded to.

Within communities, residents should have a communication system, a communication brigade or tree where Person number 1 contacts Person number 2 and so on and the last person on the list contacts Person number 1 to confirm that everyone included in the communication network responded and their needs communicated to each other.

The community communication network should link to the LGUs in towns/cities and provinces.

Informal/personal communication networks are just as vital as working communication devices and facilities please.

GENDER/AGE/DISABILITY-specific responses should also be mainstreamed so the appropriate assistance is extended to the victims.

Employer healthcare costs in the Philippines are projected to rise 14% in 2026, slightly slower than this year’s 15% rate, according to British-American consultancy firm Aon.

The moderation reflects an easing of medical inflation after two years of sharp increases across Asia-Pacific, Aon said in its 2026 Global Medical Trend Rates Report.

The Philippines joins China, India, Singapore and Vietnam among markets expected to post lower growth in medical plan costs next year.

Aon defines ‘medical trend’ as the annual percentage increase in the cost of providing employer-sponsored health coverage, factoring in inflation, healthcare utilization, prescription drug prices and the adoption of new medical technologies.

Globally, the 2026 medical trend rate is forecast at 9.8%, while Asia-Pacific’s average is higher at 11.3%, underscoring the region’s elevated healthcare demand and cost pressures.

‘The Asia-Pacific region continues to face double-digit medical trend rates, reflecting both the resilience of healthcare demand and the need for medical insurers to return to profitability,’ said Tim Dwyer, Aon’s head of Human Capital for Asia-Pacific.

Cost levers

To address rising costs, Dwyer urged employers to invest in preventive healthcare and wellness initiatives that help manage employee health before illness occurs.

For the Philippines, Aon expects gross medical trend rates to decline by one percentage point, while net trend rates-which account for cost management measures such as co-pays and wellness programs-are projected to drop to 11.1% from 12%.

This is due to employers’ response through wellbeing initiatives, the study said.

Hypertension cases. High blood pressure and hypertension remain the most significant drivers of medical claims in the Philippines, mirroring trends in 18 other markets covered by the study.

Hypertension also underpins other costly diseases, including cardiovascular conditions, which continue to dominate health-related spending across Asia-Pacific.

Stabilizing after pandemic rebound

Across the region, Aon said the cost of specialty drugs, broader access to private healthcare, and aging populations continue to drive medical inflation.

The pace, however, is stabilizing following pandemic-era disruptions and sharp rebounds in medical utilization.

‘Employers must move from reactive cost control to proactive health strategy,’ Dwyer said. ‘Building… sustainable benefits programs will be critical to managing workforce wellbeing.’

The report, based on data from over 100 Aon offices worldwide, aims to guide companies in budgeting for employee healthcare amid persistent inflation and geopolitical volatility.

The country’s self-sufficiency in rice fell to its lowest level in almost four decades, as milling recovery dropped while imports were at record high last year.

The country’s rice self-sufficiency ratio (SSR), which measures the overall share of local supply to total supply, fell to 71.7 percent in 2024, the lowest in 37 years, based on Philippine Statistics Authority data.

The PSA data showed that this is the lowest rice SSR since the data series started in 1988. The latest rice SSR figure surpassed the previous record low of 72.1 percent in 1998.

On an annual basis, the rice SSR of 71.7 percent last year was 6.2 percentage points lower than the 77.9 percent recorded level in 2023, according to the PSA.

Since 1988, this is the fifth time that the country’s rice SSR was below the 80 percent level (1998, 2019, 2022, 2023). The four years (2019, 2022, 2023, 2024) that rice SSR fell below 80 percent were all after the government liberalized the country’s rice trade regime in 2019, which allowed the easier entry of foreign supplies.

‘SSR shows the magnitude of production in relation to domestic utilization. It is the extent to which a country’s supply of commodities is derived from its own domestic production,’ the PSA said.

The latest rice SSR means that for every one kilo of rice supply in the country, around 717 grams came from domestic production while the remaining grams were imported.

Agriculture industry groups and experts attributed the drop in rice SSR to record-high imports last year that ate up some of the local production’s market share, coupled with the reduction in domestic production estimate due to lower milling recovery rate.

In estimating the rice SSR, the PSA has implemented the revised palay-rice milling recovery of 63 percent from the previous 65.4 percent. This means that local rice production loses more rice in the milling process compared to before.

Meanwhile, the country produced 19.08 million metric tons of palay last year equivalent to 12.02 million metric tons of rice while it imported a record-high of 4.74 million metric tons of rice, based on PSA data.

‘The lower milling recovery rate of 63 percent shows how much of local rice is lost after harvest, while record-high imports show the growing gap between what the country produces and what it needs,’ Marie Annette Dacul, executive director of University of Asia and the Pacific’s Center for Food and Agri Business, told The STAR.

‘The drop in the country’s rice self-sufficiency to its lowest level shows ongoing problems in the rice value chain. This reminds us that rice security isn’t just about growing more, it’s about fixing the whole system: improving how we mill, store, and move rice, and finding the right balance between imports and our own production,’ she said.

The Federation of Free Farmers and Philippine Chamber of Agriculture and Food Inc. claimed that the PSA keeps on using the wrong formula in estimating the country’s self-sufficiency level since demand is not a factor in the statistical agency’s formula.

The PSA computes a commodity’s SSR by dividing local production with the total supply, which is computed by subtracting exports from the combined volume of local production and imports, multiplied by 100.

‘The computation should involve the demand. If our estimates are incorrect then it may have an impact on crafting our policies,’ PCAFI president Danilo Fausto told The STAR.

International Rice Research Institute scientist Shyam Basnet said the Philippines would continue importing around 15 percent of its rice supplies if current diet patterns and productivity levels remain the same.

Shyam pointed out that Filipinos’ diet remains rice-heavy with rice and rice-based products accounting for around 72 percent of cereal consumption.

‘Rice imports were about 7.2 percent of consumption in 2000 and have climbed to nearly 14 percent today. By contrast, the country was largely self-sufficient in the 1980s, when population and per-capita rice consumption were lower.’

The Marcos administration plans to achieve a rice SSR of 90 percent at the end of its term.

A coalition of reform-minded city and municipal mayors has launched a hotline that lets the public flag ghost, substandard, or overpriced infrastructure projects.

The platform, called REPORT INFRA, was rolled out Thursday, October 16, by the Mayors for Good Governance (M4GG), a group of local executives pushing for cleaner and more transparent local governments.

“The new initiative seeks to curb corruption in public works by providing a safe and accessible channel for citizens, government employees, contractors, and local stakeholders to share verified information or evidence of anomalous practices,” the M4GG said in a statement Thursday.

The public can submit tips through a hotline (02) 8459-0143, open weekdays from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., or via online through bit.ly/reportinfraph and mayorsforgoodgovernance.ph/reportinfraph and mayorsforgoodgovernance.ph/reportinfraph

M4GG said the hotline – which it touted as “safe and accessible” – is meant to make it easier for citizens to share verified information or evidence of anomalies in local public works projects.

Why mayors are backing the hotline

Pasig City Mayor Vico Sotto, one of the group’s convenors, said the effort builds on growing frustration over how corruption has persisted despite repeated investigations and policy reforms.

‘We need whistleblowers who will expose the graft and corrupt practices being done in their areas,’ Sotto said in the statement. ‘If we want genuine and lasting change to happen in our country, we all have to do our own share to hold these corrupt officials accountable.’

Baguio City Mayor Benjamin Magalong, also part of the coalition, said the hotline aims to turn citizen vigilance into usable data.

‘Corruption in our government is a huge problem,’ Magalong said. ‘We need our fellow citizens to help in finding information and evidence about the irregularities committed in their localities.’

Each submission will be reviewed by a technical and legal team working with M4GG. Verified reports will be endorsed to the Independent Commission for Infrastructure (ICI) – the same body currently looking into corruption in public works projects, including the possibility of collusion among officials and contractors.

Both the M4GG and ICI signed a memorandum of understanding in September that covers several areas of cooperation in hunting down corruption in infrastructure works, with the hotline one of the projects initially touted.

Another M4GG convenor, Quezon City Mayor Joy Belmonte, said member-mayors of their group have already been asked to comb through projects carried out by the DPWH in their areas since 2015.

A similar crowdsourcing platform was launched by the Office of the President in August – the sumbongsapangulo website – where the platform also allows the public to view the status of and reports related to alleged corrupt flood control works.

The International Criminal Court (ICC) has disqualified Chief Prosecutor Karim Khan from the case of former President Rodrigo Duterte, citing a number of factors that may give an “appearance of bias’ arising from his past legal ties to a potential witness in the case.

In a ruling made public Wednesday, October 15, the ICC Appeals Chamber granted the request of the defense to disqualify Khan after it ruled that his prior work created “an objectively reasonable appearance of bias” that compromised his required impartiality.

The decision cited the fact that Khan had interviewed witnesses and helped prepare a 2018 submission that explicitly named Duterte as the primary target for ICC investigation – information Khan failed to disclose until months after Duterte’s arrest.

However, Khan – the ICC’s chief prosecutor – is already on indefinite leave over a separate issue that is not related to the Duterte case: there is currently an investigation on allegations of sexual assault against him.

The case against Duterte will continue under ICC Deputy Prosecutor Mame Mandiaye Niang, who has led the prosecution team from the start. Duterte remains in ICC custody at The Hague following his March 12 surrender on charges of crimes against humanity related to the thousands killed in his anti-drug campaign.

Khan’s undisclosed conflict emerged only after ICC judges issued Duterte’s arrest warrant on March 7. The prosecutor then notified the court he had represented drug war victims in 2018, submitting what’s known as an Article 15 Communication requesting an ICC investigation into the Philippines.

Undisclosed conflict of interest

Khan’s undisclosed conflict emerged only after ICC judges issued Duterte’s arrest warrant on March 7. The prosecutor then notified the court he had represented drug war victims in 2018, submitting what’s known as an Article 15 Communication requesting an ICC investigation into the Philippines.

Court documents show Khan’s involvement went beyond simple representation. He personally conducted “activities of an investigatory nature” including interviewing individuals who later became prosecution witnesses against Duterte. The submission he helped prepare dedicated substantial sections to establishing Duterte’s individual criminal responsibility.

Khan purportedly waited until March 6, one day before Duterte’s arrest warrant was issued, to inform judges about his prior involvement. He didn’t disclose the full extent of his work to Duterte’s defense team until June 27, nearly four months after the arrest.

In their October 2 decision publicized yesterday, the five-judge Appeals Chamber found that “a reasonable observer would conclude that in light of the nature and the extent to the Prosecutor’s involvement in the Article 15 Communication, he could be expected to have formed an opinion on the individual criminal responsibility of Mr Duterte.”

Khan had argued his prior work posed no conflict since no formal case existed in 2018 and the evidence now available far exceeded what he had access to as a victims’ lawyer. He insisted he had not participated in reviewing the arrest warrant application and had taken a leave of absence in May.

The judges rejected these arguments and stressed their duty to ensure fair proceedings. They noted the 2018 submission Khan helped prepare explicitly recommended Duterte be investigated and included detailed sections on his alleged command responsibility and intent to kill drug suspects.