The central office and 12 regional offices of the Department of Education (DepEd) have not remitted a total of P5.55 billion in taxes, insurance contributions, and loan payments deducted from teachers and non-teaching personnel as of end-2022.

Specifically, the education department failed to remit to the following government agencies and corporations:

• P4.47 billion – Government Service Insurance System (GSIS)
• P307.034 million – Philippine Health Insurance Corporation (PhilHealth)
• P193.768 million – Home Development Mutual Fund (HDMF or Pag-IBIG)
• P572.6 million – Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR)

State auditors said, “The failure by the DepEd Offices to remit the premium contributions deprived their employees of the opportunity to avail [themselves] of loan privileges, earn yearly dividends, and such other benefits…thereby causing undue injury on them.”

Vice President Sara Duterte is letting go of her request for a combined P650 million in confidential funds for the Office of the Vice President and the Department of Education, saying she must move on from such a “divisive” issue.

She gave this statement to the Senate yesterday amid reports that senators had decided to realign the confidential funds of the OVP and DepEd, which she concurrently heads, along with those of other civilian agencies without security functions.

(Published on November 9, 2023)
In a since-viral video shared on social media circles last November 8, a Palawan State University (PSU) student from the College of Engineering, Architecture, and Technology (CEAT) can be seen incoherently screaming and behaving in an erratic way, including nearly hurling a chair, at a certain classroom in the new Architecture building.

The video also showed someone who appears to be a teacher instructing her classmates to assist the distressed student. She also offered a prayer for the young woman. In response, the classmates approached the weeping student.

She was seen too being embraced by her classmates while she continued to cry, shout, and at times, even burst into loud laughter. One individual approached her also, praying and asking for God’s help, as she continued to scream.

While speculations related to supernatural possession abound amongst professors and students, others point to a lack of a formal blessing to the aforementioned building, insufficient rest and nourishment, and the heavy workload those in the BS Architecture program are currently shouldering as probable causes.

Former Supreme Court senior associate justice Antonio Carpio yesterday urged the Philippine government to challenge China to submit to arbitration (namely, the United Nations’ International Court of Justice (ICJ)) its territorial dispute over Panatag (Scarborough) Shoal to finally settle which country has sovereignty.

China earlier accused the Philippines of illegally entering its waters near Panatag Shoal or Bajo de Masinloc, which is within the Philippines’ 200-nautical-mile exclusive economic zone (EEZ).

Carpio explained that the Philippines’ 2016 arbitral award invalidating China’s nine-dash line virtually claiming the entire South China Sea “was only talking of the maritime dispute,” but the decision can also apply to territorial claims.

Meanwhile, Solicitor General Menardo Guevarra gave his perspective on the matter, explaining that a territorial dispute differs from the since-won maritime rights dispute within the Philippines' EEZ, way back in 2016. He, along with Justice Secretary Crispin Remulla, also mulls adding environmental and territorial cases as legal options regarding the West Philippine Sea, with the former having a tentative date of early 2024.

Citing the possibility of ”serious irreversible harm” on the environment and residents, the Supreme Court has issued a writ of kalikasan against mining operations in Brooke’s Point in Palawan, insinuating both the Mines and Geosciences Bureau (MGB) and Ipilan Nickel Corp. (INC) for failing to act on requests to investigate the mining operations conducted by Celestial Nickel Mining and Exploration Corp. (CNMI) and implement a cease and desist order issued by the DENR last year.

(original poster and title by Jade/AngelL1C herself)

In which she takes up the nigh-impossible challenge of beating Zagreus's father in a 64-heat, unseeded, unmodded run, something that Youtuber Haelian posited in his video about said impossibility, and legitimately wins...

From the cast of the recently-concluded Maze Runner-inspired Outsiders SMP, comes an majestic experience that is both academical and magical, with intrigue and wonder in between, and where a hero can turn into a villain, in the same way a villain can, in turn. through the perspectives of its students in the aforementioned academic institute, brought to you by enthusiastic content creators and crew who are both adept at art and Minecraft roleplay.

Everafters SMP

!EveraftersSMP