Municipality of Luisiana governance programs get boost with PLDT Enterprise BEYOND FIBER roll out

Wazzup Pilipinas!?

In fulfillment of its commitment to support LGUs, PLDT Enterprise has linked up the local Municipality of Luisiana with BEYOND FIBER to further improve their delivery of public programs for its government offices and service of their constituents amid the pandemic.

Dubbed as the “Little Baguio of Laguna”, Luisiana is located adjacent to Majayjay and Pagsanjan. Popular for their cocoa and Pandan-woven products, the town remains to be one of the lowest reported cases of COVID-19 cases in Laguna with 113 cases, 2 deaths, and 106 recoveries to date.

To further support the success of COVID health campaigns and other government policies, PLDT Enterprise is deploying its latest fiber solution BEYOND FIBER to the government unit. As an all-in-one digital solution, the digital tools and Wi-Fi included in BEYOND FIBER will contribute in improving the municipality’s initiatives for disaster response programs, digitizing application and process forms, access to healthcare systems, and other public programs.

“The Municipality of Luisiana has always welcomed PLDT Enterprise with their warmest support. As a gesture of giving back, we’re deploying BEYOND FIBER to power the town with fiber-grade connectivity that will be helpful in furthering government programs, making collaboration, processes, and systems more efficient.” said Jovy Hernandez, ePLDT President, CEO and SVP Head for PLDT and Smart Enterprise Business Groups.

Their impressive management are results of the LGU’s extensive health campaign against COVID-19, with its main thrust focused on proper information dissemination about the virus and promoting proper health protocols such as wearing masks, regular sanitization, and social distancing. Isolation units for suspected cases are also provided while a vaccine is still in development, all thanks to the united efforts of local task forces, Barangay Health Emergency Response Team, and sanitation officers.

Mitch Locsin, PLDT FVP & Enterprise Revenue Group Head, welcomes the strengthened alliance between the LGU and PLDT Enterprise. “We would like to thank Luisiana for their unwavering support and this is surely just one of the many more programs that we will be implementing in order to support our LGUs.”

Mayor Nestor Rondilla of Luisiana responds, “Our partnership with one of the most trusted and powerful solutions providers in the country such as PLDT is definitely a big leap in improving our initiatives, especially when it comes to aiding our citizens in recovering from the impact of COVID-19.”

Future plans of the municipality include expanding its technology by tapping into more PABX and fiber lines for its different government offices within the area.

PLDT has been a solid partner among enterprises and government in their efforts to provide services to the public in light of the challenges of the pandemic and the guidelines set to curb the spread of COVID19. The PLDT Group has also invested over Php 286 billion in the past five years in expanding their network coverage and further building into the most extensive fiber optic network in the country with 429,000 kilometers spanning the archipelago and abroad.

These efforts have helped empower PLDT’s customers and clients in enabling their own digital transformation journeys to manage and adopt to the new normal.

To learn more, visit pldtenterprise.com

#MateshipAndBayanihan amid COVID-19: Working together to support Bangsamoro children’s education

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The COVID-19 pandemic continues to strain nations across the world. Economies, jobs, education and health system remain disrupted. Vulnerable sectors, especially those in developing countries like the Philippines, are entrenched deeper in poverty. Earlier this year, it was reported that the Philippines has suffered its worst economic contraction since World War II with a Gross Domestic Product growth of negative 9.5% by end of 2020. The nation’s total outstanding debt also climbed 3.5% month-on-month to P10.77 trillion.

The dire situation has enabled strengthened alliances, as nations on the mend from the pandemic extend support to struggling nations. One friend that came to the immediate aid of the Philippines is its Southeast Asia and Indo-Pacific neighbor, Australia.

Australia and the Philippines celebrate 75 years of diplomatic ties this year since the establishment of the Australian Consulate General in Manila. Through the decades, Australia has been a long-standing partner of the Philippines to address its development challenges in the areas of basic education, training and human resource development, public financial management, health, rural and community development, governance, assistance to vulnerable groups, infrastructure, and support to the Mindanao peace and development process.

Commitment to Development, Commitment to Mindanao

Based on latest data, the Bangsamoro is home to some of the country’s poorest and most vulnerable communities due to a confluence of man-made and natural disasters. The region continues to lag behind compared to others in the country despite the gains made under the new autonomous government. Poverty incidence among families, for instance, remain at 53.6%. Basic or simple literacy, meanwhile, stands at 86.1%, way below the country’s average of 96.5%.

Australia’s development cooperation program in the Philippines thus puts premium in Mindanao, particularly in the Bangsamoro: supporting basic education reform, peace and stability, and inclusive economic growth.

Some of the past initiatives include the Basic Education Assistance to Mindanao program from 2002-2009; the Philippines Response to Indigenous Peoples’ and Muslim Education program (PRIME) in 2011-2014; and the Basic Education Assistance to Muslim Mindanao program (BEAM-ARMM) in 2012-2017.

Partnering with Save the Children against COVID-19

With support from Australia, Save the Children Philippines has been implementing the project Children’s Access to Quality Alternative Learning Modalities in Safe Spaces in the BARMM as part of the Education Pathways to Peace in Mindanao program.

The project is a direct response to the Bangsamoro Ministry of Basic, Higher, and Technical Education’s call for a more consolidated and coordinated effort in responding to the emerging needs of children on quality education. It aims to protect every child’s right to learn amid the COVID-19 pandemic through alternative education and distance learning opportunities.

The COVID-19-adaptive project aims to reach 90 schools across BARMM’s nine school divisions using age-appropriate, gender-sensitive, inclusive, COVID-safe, and culturally-sensitive learning modalities. Direct beneficiaries include at least 14,400 children, 4,000 adults, 450 school personnel, and 100 partner institutions. The estimated indirect beneficiaries, through offline and online information, education, and communications materials, are around 362,000 children and adults.

Operationally, the project is focusing on developing and distributing learning materials for students and teaching packages for teachers and parents, as well as improving the capacity of teachers, parents, and other caregivers on alternative learning delivery during the pandemic. To keep learners and education personnel safe from COVID-19, the project also distributed Hygiene Sustainability Kits in schools.

The project undertakes advocacy campaigns related to children’s rights and protection, mental health and psychosocial support, and psychological first aid. This is in response to ground realities that the COVID-19 pandemic does not only cause health hazard to learners, but also takes a toll on their physical and mental wellbeing.

“We cannot afford to lose children in this pandemic. Aside from ensuring that they remain healthy and free from COVID-19, we must also do our best to guarantee that they remain learning in a place that is safe – physically, mentally, and psychosocially,” Muyot added.

“Our work does not end when the pandemic ends. We will not stop until all children, regardless of race, religion, sex, and status in life, are educated, safe, protected, and have recovered from the blow of this pandemic. We look forward to our continued and fruitful partnership with Australia in transforming this aspiration into a reality.”

Road safety advocates demand safer speed limits on city and municipal roads

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A group of road safety advocates called for local government units to set and enforce safe speed limits on city and municipal roads. Led by law group ImagineLaw, the 35 organizations represent and comprise vulnerable road users, including pedestrians, cyclists, commuters, children, older people, and persons with disabilities.

“Every hour, a person dies on Philippine roads due to road crashes. It could be any one of us—a person cycling on the way to work, a parent walking home from the market, or a courier delivering our latest online purchase,” said the group in a statement released to the public.

“We are all road users, and we all risk our lives every time we travel for as long as motor vehicles travel at high speeds on roads where people mix with traffic,” the group said.

The group—composed of civil society organizations, student councils, cycling community representative, as well as the government agency mandated to formulate policies concerning disability issues and concerns, the National Council on Disability Affairs—makes their call as the United Nations (UN) celebrates the 6th Global Road Safety Week this May 17 to 23, with the theme Streets for Life: #Love30.

The road safety advocates demanded the Philippine government “to act urgently to keep all road users safe and to #Love30 by limiting motor vehicle speeds to 30kph or less on roads where we walk, live, and play.” Their demand? Streets for life—shareable, walkable, and livable streets.

Their statement is timely for the Philippines where 12,487 people were killed in road crashes in 2018. Half of the people who die on Philippine roads are vulnerable road users, who are at the greatest risk of being struck by speeding motor vehicles.

Speeding makes roads unsafe because it increases both crash risk and crash severity. In other words, the faster a motor vehicle travels, the longer it takes to stop to avoid hitting a pedestrian or a cyclist or even another vehicle, and the more likely that a crash will result in severe injuries or death.

According to the World Health Organization, giving local authorities the power to reduce national speeds and to manage speed within their locality is important because national speed limits do not always correspond to the appropriate speed when the road environment changes.

In the Philippines, it is councilors from LGUs that know the actual road conditions best and are in the best position to classify their roads to set safe speed limits. However, the group lamented that “less than 2% of all LGUs are reported to have enacted speed limit ordinances that set safe speed limits, such as 30kph on city or municipal roads and 20kph on barangay roads and crowded streets.”

The group said that “without these interventions [speed limit ordinances and speed enforcement], the rising number of road deaths, particularly of vulnerable road users… will only continue to rise."



They reiterated their call for urgent government action and state that “[e]very hour of inaction by the government means another life lost on our roads.”




To read the group’s statement, you may visit http://www.facebook.com/imaginelawPH.