Day: June 26, 2024

South Korea’s possible supply of lethal weapons to Ukraine could result in “irreversible consequences” in its relations with Russia, a Russian foreign ministry official said Wednesday.

The warning came after National Security Adviser Chang Ho-jin said South Korea will review the possibility of supplying weapons to Ukraine after North Korean leader Kim Jong-un and Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a pact pledging mutual defense in the event of war. Chang later said the extent of its arms supply to Ukraine will depend on Russia’s actions.

In response, Putin warned South Korea would be making a “big mistake” if it decided to supply lethal weapons to Ukraine.

“We would like to warn the Republic of Korea against rash steps that could lead to irreversible consequences for Russian-South Korean relations,” Maria Zakharova, Russia’s foreign ministry spokeswoman, told reporters, according to Russian news agency Sputnik.

Zakharova was quoted as saying that Russia will not sit by as South Korean weapons and eq
uipment are transferred to Ukraine, emphasizing that bilateral ties between Seoul and Moscow will deteriorate in the event lethal weapons are supplied.

The Russian official also said modifying U.N. Security Council sanctions resolutions against North Korea would be an effective way for detente, according to Sputnik.

South Korea’s assistance to Ukraine has included military supplies, such as first-aid kits, medicine, portable mine detectors and protective suits, but the country has maintained a policy of not providing lethal aid.

Source: Yonhap News Agency

MANILA: A party-list lawmaker said Wednesday the Philippines’ bilateral labor agreements (BLAs) with other countries must have teeth to protect the rights of overseas Filipino workers (OFWs).

OFW Party-list Rep. Marissa Magsino made the statement after the Kuwaiti government lifted its year-long ban on the issuance of entry visas and worker visas for OFWs.

“Our bilateral labor agreements envelop the policy support for our OFWs while they are abroad. It must have decisiveness and grit to make sure there is no space for abuses against our OFWs. If there are some abuses, the agreements should provide for serious consequences that would deter foreign employers from committing a similar transgression,” Magsino said in a statement.

For the deployment of domestic workers, Kuwaiti authorities agreed to the proposal of the Philippines to limit the deployment to those with work experience, similar to the deferment in February 2023.

Magsino said while the lifting of the deployment ban would boost the welfare of the
families of OFWs and the Philippines, stronger policies on worker protection must be in place before deployment resumes.

She thanked the Kuwaiti government, Department of Migrant Workers, Department of Foreign Affairs, and the hardworking embassy and Migrant Workers Office officials in Kuwait for ‘making sure that the Filipinos will have available livelihood in Kuwait and will still be part of host country’s development.’

She said BLAs should include explicit provisions relating to social security, equality of treatment, repatriation, and most importantly, protocols governing the investigation and prosecution of criminal offenses committed against OFWs, and legal remedies available to them and their families for redress of grievance and to secure justice.

Due to the murder case of OFW Jullebee Ranara, then Secretary Susan ‘Toots” Ople limited the deployment of domestic workers to Kuwait to only those with previous work experience, banning first-timers.

In May 2023, Kuwait suspended all new visas for Phili
ppine passport holders.

With this development, Migrant Workers Secretary Hans Leo Cacdac said a two-week to one-month adjustment period is needed to set the relevant issuances and work on the regulations on the resumption of deployment of newly hired and skilled workers to Kuwait.

To further ensure OFW protection, Cacdac said the Philippines and Kuwait also agreed to establish a joint technical working committee to periodically meet to resolve labor-related issues and other concerns.

Source: Philippines News Agency

North Korea on Wednesday sent balloons presumed to be carrying trash toward South Korea again, the Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) said, in what marked its third consecutive balloon campaign this week alone.

The JCS said an unspecified number of balloons appeared to be travelling in a southeastern direction from the northern part of Gyeonggi Province that surrounds Seoul.

It advised the public to not touch fallen balloons and report them to the military or police.

With the latest launch, North Korea is estimated to have launched more than 2,000 trash-carrying balloons over seven occasions since May 28 in a tit-for-tat move against anti-Pyongyang leaflets sent by North Korean defectors and activists in the South.

North Korea has strongly opposed the propaganda campaign, out of concerns that an influx of outside information could threaten the leadership of its regime.

Earlier in the day, the JCS said North Korea has launched more than 250 trash-carrying balloons toward South Korea overnight, with some 100 bal
loons landing mostly in Seoul and the northern area of Gyeonggi Province.

An analysis of retrieved balloons, largely carrying pieces of scrap paper, showed they did not contain any harmful substances, it said.

A JCS official told reporters that a single trash bundle is estimated to be carrying more than 7,000 pieces of low-quality paper.

Due to the North’s balloon launch, domestic and international flights were suspended or delayed for about three hours at Incheon International Airport, just west of Seoul, from 1:46 a.m. Wednesday.

In response to the balloon campaign, South Korea blared anti-Pyongyang broadcasts through its border loudspeakers on June 9 for the first time in six years. But the broadcasts have not continued in an apparent bid to prevent the situation from spiraling out of control.

The JCS said it remains ready to conduct loudspeaker broadcasts at any time and warned the implementation of such operations would depend on North Korea’s actions.

Earlier in the day, the North also launched a
ballistic missile toward the East Sea, but the launch apparently ended in failure as the missile exploded in mid-air, according to the JCS official.

Source: Yonhap News Agency

BACOLOD: Eight indigent Negrense children with complex heart conditions are getting a new lease on life after undergoing surgeries through ‘Project Paglaum (Hope),’ a partnership between the Philippine Heart Center (PHC) and the Corazon Locsin Montelibano Memorial Regional Hospital (CLMMRH) based in this city.

The patients, aged 6 years to 15 years, are the beneficiaries of the project’s third cardiovascular surgical mission held on June 24-25.

They are among the 26 adult and pediatric beneficiaries of the missions in Negros Occidental, including this highly-urbanized city, which began last year.

Hospital chief Dr. Julius Drilon said Project Paglaum shows the commitment of CLMMRH to fulfill its mandate from the Department of Health (DOH) as a designated cardiovascular center under Department Order 2021-0001.

‘This initiative ensures that cardiovascular services are available, accessible, and affordable to the people of Negros,’ Drilon said in a press conference.

The latest mission is part of a four-phase
multi-year development plan to develop CLMMRH as a regional heart center, said Dr. Juliet Balderas, PHC deputy executive director for medical services.

‘Under the Regional Heart Center Development Program, the CLMMRH is ready to become a full-blown heart center,’ she added.

In this week’s cardiovascular surgical mission, the pediatric patients are from the cities of Bacolod, Bago, Silay, and Kabankalan, who have been diagnosed with complex heart conditions, such as ventricular septal defect, atrial septal defect, and tetralogy of Fallot.

It marks the first time that tetralogy of Fallot, a combination of four congenital heart defects, has been addressed in Negros Island.

The PHC’s collaboration with the CLMMRH aims to capacitate regional hospitals to decentralize cardiovascular surgeries and interventions from the PHC to the provinces in compliance with the implementing rules and regulations for Republic Act 11959, also known as the Regional Specialty Center Act.

Phase 1 of Project Paglaum began with two
pacemaker surgeries in April and May 2021.

The first surgical mission followed from May 29 to June 2 last year. It kicked off with the PHC and the CLMMRH signing a memorandum of agreement for the latter’s training and preparation as a regional heart center.

The initial batch of beneficiaries were 13 adults and children, eight of whom underwent open-heart surgeries while five others went through closed-heart surgeries.

During the second mission from Nov. 27 to Dec. 1, five patients with coronary artery diseases underwent a coronary artery bypass graft procedure.

All patients in the two missions were discharged improved and well, according to the CLMMRH.

Source: Philippines News Agency

North Korea on Wednesday sent balloons presumed to be carrying trash toward South Korea again, the Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) said, in what marked its third consecutive balloon launch campaign this week alone.

The JCS said the balloons appeared to be travelling in a southeastern direction from the northern part of Gyeonggi Province that surrounds Seoul.

It advised the public to not touch fallen balloons and report them to the military or police.

With the latest launch, North Korea is estimated to have launched more than 2,000 trash-carrying balloons over seven occasions since May 28 in a tit-for-tat move against anti-Pyongyang leaflets sent by North Korean defectors and activists in the South.

Wednesday’s balloon campaign came after North Korea test-fired a ballistic missile, possibly a hypersonic missile, toward the East Sea earlier in the day. The missile exploded mid-air.

Source: Yonhap News Agency

MANILA: The Department of Agriculture-Bureau of Animal Industry (DA-BAI) on Wednesday urged livestock farmers to report sick animals to prevent outbreaks in the country.

This came after the DA-BAI depopulated 94 imported goats from the United States in ‘secluded’ farms in Pampanga and Marinduque, after testing positive for the country’s first logged cases of Q fever.

Q fever is a zoonotic disease that may be transmitted to humans through contact with infected animals or their excreta or body fluids.

‘Mag-report tayo kapag may kahina-hinalang nangyayari sa ating mga alaga, dahil diyan makatutulong tayong ma-prevent ang sakit sa ating bansa (We should report suspicious developments in our livestock because through it, we can help prevent the spread of diseases in the country),’ BAI National Veterinary Quarantine Services Division officer-in-charge Dr. Christian Daquigan said in an interview aired over Radyo Pilipinas.

Daquigan said local livestock farmers may directly coordinate with the DA’s municipal offi
ces if any symptoms are observed in their animals, whether or not it is related to Q fever.

‘Kapag nakakita tayo ng sakit sa ating mga alaga, huwag nating itago. Huwag tayong matakot na sumangguni sa ating mga (If we detect sickness in our livestock, we should not hide it. We should not be afraid of consulting our) local veterinarian, provincial vet,’ he said.

Meanwhile, Daquigan assured more stringent border measures and wider surveillance in Pampanga and Marinduque.

‘Mas pinaigting po natin iyong ating border control, lalo po iyong padating na kambing galing sa US po, may temporary banning na po tayo ng mga kambing na manggagaling sa US (We have intensified our border control, especially on goats coming from the US, we already have a temporary ban on goats from the US),” he said.

To date, there were no reports of livestock farmers in affected farms in Marinduque and Pampanga being infected by Q fever.

Source: Philippines News Agency