Guardians of the Visayan Sea Convened

Wazzup Pilipinas!

Governors and mayors from the Visayas committed to protect and restore the Visayan Sea, one of the richest fishing grounds in the Philippines, from illegal commercial and destructive fishing.

Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (BFAR) Director Eduardo Gongona signed the covenant of commitment and cooperation for the protection and conservation of the Visayan Sea, with Negros Occidental Governor Alfredo Marañon Jr., Iloilo Governor Arthur Defensor Sr. and Cebu Governor Hilario Davide III represented by the Provincial Environment and Management Office (PEMO) head, Baltazar Tribunalo Jr.

“Our goal is to be food sufficient, and later on, to be a food exporting country. We have to protect and develop our marine resources, especially for food security, to feed millions of people. This is a challenge, but we can do it. If we do our job together, with strong partnership with local government units, we can achieve more,” Gongona said during the governor’s meeting in Sicogon Island in Carles, Iloilo last 22 July.

Bounded by the provinces of Iloilo, Negros Occidental, Cebu and Masbate, the Visayan Sea is one of the country’s richest fishing grounds, hosting a variety of high-value species such as tuna, herring, mackerel, blue swimming crab and sardines. However, scientists reported a steady decline in seafood supply from the 1980s onwards – due mostly to the prevalence of blast fishing, plus the encroachment of trawls, purse seines and ring nets in municipal waters.

Fortinet Launches Global Threat Intelligence Service

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FortiGuard Threat Intelligence Service Arms CISOs with Actionable and Prioritized Threat Intelligence Enabling a Quick and Proactive Response to Targeted Attacks

Fortinet, the global leader in high-performance cybersecurity solutions, today announced a new threat intelligence service that arms Cybersecurity leaders with cyber situational awareness highlighting the latest threat trends and cyber risks facing their organizations. Fortinet’s FortiGuard Threat Intelligence Service (TIS) enables CISOs to stay ahead of the global threat landscape and proactively defend their enterprises against rapidly evolving threats.

• FortiGuard TIS is a cloud-based threat intelligence platform that provides threat metrics and activity trends, enabling CISOs to instantly understand what is happening across the global threat landscape.
• FortiGuard TIS leverages Fortinet’s FortiGuard Labs leading threat intelligence research. FortiGuard Labs consists of more than 200 expert researchers analyzing data collected from more than three million sensors around the globe.

Global and Industry Threat Intelligence at a CISO’s Fingertips

A recent Forrester survey of 342 security leaders found that the CISOs’ largest cybersecurity challenge is adapting to “the rapidly evolving nature of cyber threats.” The report recommends that CISOs gather good threat intelligence that provides insight into attacker methods and indicators of compromise, noting that 78% of CISOs that have adopted a threat intelligence platform haven’t experienced a breach. It’s clear that CISOs who properly leverage threat intelligence combined with a technology-driven security strategy are better prepared to successfully defend their organizations.

FortiGuard TIS is specifically designed to provide the threat intelligence needed for CISOs to stay on top of the latest threat trends so they can effectively communicate cybersecurity risks to the C-Suite and board while also enabling more efficient management of Security Operations to maximize resources and proactively defend against trending threats.

• Global threat landscape activity is prioritized so that CISOs can instantly understand which type of cyber threat is on the rise. This easy to understand data can be communicated to the wider organization and also enables security leaders to more effectively task their security operations teams.   
• Kill Chain reporting provides additional details on the unique and specific threat trends currently impacting their industry and the globe. Security leaders can see the most active applications, intrusion prevention signatures, malware and botnets on an industry-by-industry basis and easily compare these trends within their industry, by company size, by geographic location and with the overall landscape.
• CISOs can drill down further into specific threat details to identify its activity trends, prevalence and ranking. Integration with the FortiGuard Encyclopedia provides enhanced threat descriptions that includes details of the origin, behaviors and remediation steps.
• Individual application vulnerabilities and malware can also feature additional notes created by FortiGuard Labs threat researchers that provide timely insights into campaign-specific or emerging threats. Expanded commentary is often featured in periodic Fortinet blogs, quarterly FortiGuard Threat Landscape Reports, and weekly FortiGuard Threat Intelligence Briefs.

Availability

Fortinet’s FortiGuard Threat Intelligence Service is available as an open beta today. Please visit https://tis.fortiguard.com/signup to learn more.

“Given the maturity and breadth of our sensor network, Fortinet is uniquely positioned to provide accurate threat intelligence telemetry across a diverse and broad range of sources across the globe. FortiGuard Labs ingests over 50 billion events daily, and now with the FortiGuard Threat Intelligence Service we are able to deliver those same extensive threat insights to our customers and the security community at large.” - John Maddison, Senior Vice President of Products and Solutions at Fortinet

Hontiveros to Push for Package of Health and Women Bills in Senate’s 2nd Regular Session

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To build on the success of the passage of her three maiden bills, upon the opening of Congress, Akbayan Senator Risa Hontiveros vowed to push for a new set of legislative measures aimed at addressing key health and women’s concerns.


“Strengthened Anti-Hospital Detention Law"

As a follow up to the successful passage of her strengthened Anti-Hospital Deposit Bill, Hontiveros is set to file a bill to enhance Republic Act 9439 otherwise known as the Anti-Hospital Detention Law. The current law prohibits health facilities from detaining patients who have fully or partially recovered due to non-payment in full or in part of hospital bills. However, Hontiveros said that there is a need to strengthen its implementation as there are numerous documented violations of the said measure.

"Ang hospital ay lugar ng gamutan, hindi kulungan," Hontiveros asserted.

“Bibong BHW Bill”

The Senator, who is the Vice-Chairperson of the Senate Committee on Health, will also push for the passage of Senate Bill 214 or the Bibong BHW Act of 2016. The measure aims to create a training program for all Barangay Health Workers (BHW) to ensure that their skills in primary health care remain up to date. The Bill also proposes that all BHW’s be entitled to a monthly allowance with additional incentives covered under the Magna Carta for Health Workers, including such benefits as PAG-IBIG, GSIS and PhilHealth coverage.

To improve government support for the nutrition of infants in their first 1000 days of life, Hontiveros will also push for the passage of Senate Bill No. 1145 or the Healthy Bulilit Act. She said that various health experts have identified a child’s first 1,000 days as a “golden window” for development, with effects ranging from the potential to prevent stunted growth and the opportunity to improve cognitive development.



Bills on women’s rights and equality

Meanwhile, Hontiveros emphasized two proposed bills in the area of women’s rights and gender equality.

The Safe Streets and Public Spaces Act, or Senate Bill No. 1326, penalizes gender-based harassment in public spaces. This pertains specifically to wolf-whistling, cat-calling leering, homophobic and transphobic slurs, and persistent requests for a woman’s name and contact details. On the other hand, the Anti-Discrimination Bill (ADB) criminalizes discrimination against members of the Lesbian, Gay, Bi-Sexual and Trans-Gender (LGBT) community, specifically the restriction of access to public health services, employment and education on the basis of ones gender and Sexual Orientation and Gender Orientation or SOGIE.

"Despite the challenges presented by the political conjuncture, we will sustain the momentum of pursuing reforms in the health, women and gender struggles," Hontiveros ended.

In the Senate’s First Regular Session, Hontiveros successfully pushed for the passage of the Strengthened Anti-Hospital Deposit Law, 120-day Expanded Maternity Leave Bill and the Mental Health Act.