Coronavirus Lockdown: Special Concern Lockdown

More news about how the COVID-19 pandemic in the Philippines is being handled by the public and the government.

It's 2021 and vaccines are on the way but lockdowns are still happening in the Philippines.

https://www.gmanetwork.com/news/news/metro/772434/4-areas-in-qc-placed-under-special-concern-lockdown/story/

Quezon City has placed four areas under special concern lockdown following an increase in COVID-19 cases after the holiday season.

In a statement on Tuesday, the QC government said areas to be locked down are the following:

1. No. 62 Agno Extension in Barangay Tatalon
2. No. 1 Salary Street in Barangay Sangandaan
3. No. 54 Interior, Magsalin Street in Barangay Apolonio Samson
4. 9C, 9D, 97 La Felonila Street in Barangay Damayang Lagi

“These granular lockdowns are our immediate and proactive response to control the situation in these areas. Since last year, our special concern lockdowns have been proven effective in controlling the spread of the disease among neighbors and families,” Mayor Joy Belmonte said.

“All families in these areas will undergo swab testing in order to identify other infected individuals. However, even if they tested negative, all will still have to finish the 14-day mandatory quarantine period to check if they will develop any symptoms during the said period,” CESU head Dr. Rolly Cruz said.

The city government said it will provide all families under quarantine with food packs and other necessities.

At least the government will provide these families with food while they keep them locked inside their own homes for two weeks. If they have to rotate this kind of lockdowns then it would seem that they are not effective at controlling the disease. It seems like a game of whack-a-mole.

Cebu City is also experiencing a resurgence in cases and has deployed police to the proper areas.

https://www.pna.gov.ph/articles/1128101

The Cebu City Police Office (CCPO) will reactivate the barangay control points in 40 villages to limit the movement of the residents now that coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) cases are on the rise anew, the police chief here said on Thursday.

Col. Josefino Ligan, CCPO chief, said in a press briefing they will present to the Emergency Operations Center the deployment plan of more or less 100 policemen who will man the barangay control points.

“They will be assisted by the barangay peace and security officers (BPSO) in apprehending violators of our quarantine measures,” Ligan said in Cebuano.

He said those who are not bringing quarantine passes and disregarding protocols such as wearing of face masks while outside of their homes will be arrested.

The CCPO is eyeing “targeted control points” in 40 barangays identified as having increasing number of Covid-19 cases. The city has 80 barangays.

Half of the barangays in Cebu City will be flooded with cops to arrest health protocol violators as cases continue to rise. 

A lockdown has also been imposed in the mountain province of Bontoc where the new UK variant is spreading.

https://newsinfo.inquirer.net/1387370/2-barangays-in-bontoc-moutain-province-on-lockdown-amid-covid-variant-surge

The regional director of the Department of Health-Cordillera Administrative Region (DOH-CAR) on Saturday said that two barangays in Bontoc, Mountain Province were placed on lockdown after a surge in  Covid-19 variant  cases.

During an online press briefing, DOH-CAR Director Dr. Ruby Constantino also warned that should the local health care utilization rate continue to increase, the LGU will recommend to the Inter-Agency Task Force  for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF-MEID) for the change of quarantine status for the entire region. 

Mountain Province is currently under moderate general community quarantine (MGCQ).

“Currently, the LGU of Bontoc municipality implemented the lockdown of the concerned barangays,” Constantino said. 

This comes a day after the DOH announced that it detected 16 additional Covid-19 variant cases.

This variant is said to be 70 percent more infectious. 

Of the 16 new cases, 12 of them were detected in Bontoc, Mountain Province. 

Seeing as how lockdowns did not stop the spread of the virus 100% and this variant is 70% more contagious it is certain this variant will spread far and wide. 

Last year Duterte said he would be publicly vaccinated to instill confidence in the people at its safety. He has now changed his stance.

https://news.abs-cbn.com/news/01/21/21/duterte-need-not-explain-taking-covid-19-vaccine-in-private-spokesman

President Rodrigo Duterte need not explain his decision to get vaccinated against COVID-19 in private, Malacañang said on Thursday. 

Duterte said that while he had "no problem" in taking the first anti-coronavirus shots that will arrive in the country, he did not think it was necessary to do this in public, according to Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque. 

This is a departure from Duterte's August 2020 statement that he was willing to be the first one to be injected with the coronavirus vaccine to prove its efficacy and safety. He was referring particularly to Russia’s Sputnik-V vaccine. 

Asked what changed Duterte's mind, Roque said: "That's his personal decision. I don't think he has to explain."  

To build public trust in the vaccine, the government instead holds press and public briefings, he told reporters in an online briefing. Vaccine hesitancy has been observed among the Filipino public in the wake of the 2018 controversy over anti-dengue shot Dengvaxia, which was said to have adverse effects.

Of course the President's decisions are his own prerogative but as the President to not give a reason for something so important is not good form and makes him look petty and whimsical.

Employment is down during the pandemic.

https://www.pna.gov.ph/articles/1128102

More than 400,000 workers from some 26,000 business establishments were displaced last year due to the coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) pandemic, the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) said on Thursday.

The department’s 2020 Job Displacement Report showed that a total of 428,701 employees from 26,060 establishments were left without jobs nationwide from January to December 2020.

It said 90 percent or 23,324 companies have adopted reduced workforce while the reminding 10 percent (2,736) reported permanent closure.

Even more people have lost their jobs as Nissan has announced the closure of their factory due to the pandemic. That is only 133 workers. But the flip-side of these loses is that almost a million business have either renewed their permits or registered for the first time.

https://business.inquirer.net/316169/pandemic-gives-rise-to-new-entrepreneurs

According to the DTI’s Business Name Registration (BNR) Division, total registrations last year reached 916,163, of which 91 percent were considered new while the rest were renewals. This is nearly 44-percent higher than the total registration in 2019 at 637,567.

Trade and Industry Secretary Ramon Lopez referred to these figures during the virtual launch of RCBC’s digital banking app called DiskarTech on Wednesday. The data were then shared by the DTI BNR division when asked for further information about the numbers.

“Amid the pandemic, there are still many opportunities that we can find and discover. In fact, during the pandemic, [the number of] newly registered businesses [went up to 916,163 as of December]. That’s the highest growth rate since 2010,” Lopez said. A newly registered business name, however, does not automatically mean the enterprise is already operational. They still need to get a business permit in order to start their operations. The DTI BNR said they do not have any data on how many of these already started operations. Nevertheless, DTI BNR data suggested that many entrepreneurs turned to retail—either online or brick-and-mortar stores—to make ends meet last year as the pandemic dragged the country to its worst recession in decades. Of the total, 140,371 business names were for sari-sari stores while 88,574 names for online stores.

Calabarzon topped the list with the most number of registrations at 183,876, followed by Metro Manila at 157,886; Central Luzon (119,708), Central Visayas (57,692) and Western Visayas (49,718), according to DTI BNR data.

Elsewhere, however, the numbers are grim.

Unemployment rate in October last year, according to data released in December, reached 8.7 percent, equivalent to 3.8 million unemployed Filipinos. Moreover, job displacement data from the labor department reportedly said that nearly 87,000 establishments temporarily closed as of October last year, more than 15,500 reduced their workforce while 1,751 closed permanently. With the Duterte administration not keen on extending generous packages to help save companies, a lot is expected from a pending bill in Congress called CREATE, or the Corporate Recovery and Tax Incentives for Enterprises.

There are of course a lot of caveats to this news.  The government's response to the pandemic has hurt the economy but it hasn't crippled it. There will be a resurgence. It's only a matter of when. Clearly the will is there.

Banks might not be willing to lend though and that is crucial to economic growth.

https://business.inquirer.net/316233/banks-tighten-credit-standards-as-lingering-pandemic-raises-risk-aversion

Increasingly risk averse banks – anticipating a fallout of bad loan this year due to the coronavirus pandemic – are putting higher hurdles for borrowers to clear in the current quarter, a poll conducted by the central bank revealed.

According to the quarterly Senior Bank Loan Officers’ Survey, some banks have implemented tighter standards for corporate clients due to a more uncertain economic outlook along with expected deterioration in borrowers’ profiles and profitability of banks’ portfolios, and banks’ lower tolerance for risk.

The survey also revealed that, during the current quarter respondent banks are also implementing tighter overall credit standards for household loans for the same reasons.

According to the central bank, most respondent banks are seeing net increases in overall loan demand from enterprises associated largely with corporate clients’ higher inventory financing and accounts receivable financing needs, improved economic outlook, and lack of other sources of funds.

Banks are also seeing a net increase in overall loan demand from households – specifically personal or salary loans – due largely to higher household consumption, lower income prospects, and lack of other sources of funds.

This is of course a flip-side to the flip-side. People want to open new businesses and buy new houses and get on with life but the banks are loathe to loan money because it might not get paid back.

The government is banking on the vaccine to stop the pandemic but it seems they really aren't so sure about it after all.

https://newsinfo.inquirer.net/1387774/doh-reminder-covid-19-vaccine-not-a-magic-pill

People still need to wear masks and face shields after being vaccinated against Covid-19, according to the Department of Health (DOH).

“We want to remind our people that the Covid-19 vaccine is not a magic pill. We still don’t have sufficient evidence to have that assurance that [people] won’t get infected [after being vaccinated],” Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire told an online briefing on Wednesday.

“What we are seeing so far are evidence of less chances of having full-blown diseases, of needing hospitalization, and of dying,” she said.

Vergeire also said the period of immunity to the new coronavirus after vaccination had not been established.

“It is still unknown how long the immunity provided by the vaccines can provide will last,” she said.

What is the point of taking the vaccine if the effectivity is unknown and unsure? You might be better off getting infected since there is a more than 90% recovery rate.

COVID-19 testing is invasive and unpleasant. They stick a huge swab through the nose to the back of the throat. Thankfully a saliva test is now available.

https://www.gmanetwork.com/news/news/nation/773092/red-cross-starts-offering-covid-19-testing-using-saliva-specimen/story/

Laboratories of the Philippine Red Cross (PRC) are now open to conduct COVID-19 tests using saliva samples, PRC Molecular Laboratory head Dr. Paulyn Ubial said on Monday.

Interviewed on GMA Network’s Unang Hirit, Ubial said the test can be availed of through online booking or walk-in service.

“Meron tayong online booking pero tumatanggap kami ngayon, as of this week siguro, ng walk-in,” Ubial said.

Those interested may book a slot via the PRC website. 

On Saturday, Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire said the Department of Health already approved the use of saliva as alternative specimen in COVID-19 tests in PRC laboratories.

Vergeire, however, noted that the DOH will wait for the validation test results from the Research Institute for Tropical Medicine before allowing saliva test in other laboratories in the country.

According to Ubial, the organization’s latest study on the new method of testing for COVID-19 diagnosis yielded 98% accuracy.

Running a test on a sample would take three to four hours. The process however takes longer with more samples in line.

According to Ubial, the PRC charges P2,000 for the COVID-19 test using saliva specimens.

This development is especially good for incoming travelers whom the DOH recommends test twice.

https://www.gmanetwork.com/news/news/nation/773003/doh-advises-all-inbound-travelers-to-undergo-covid-19-test-twice/story/

All inbound travelers to the Philippines have been advised to undergo COVID-19 test twice to make sure they are not infected with the coronavirus, the Department of Health (DOH) said.

In a public briefing on Saturday, DOH Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire said inbound passengers should be tested on the fifth day to seventh day  from their arrival in the country.

According to Vergeire, the viral load in a COVID-19 patient peaks on the fifth to seventh day of the infection.

What a burden.  Why even bother coming to the Philippines? You know what else is a burden? Having to dress up when you go shopping. Now the DOH is studying the effectiveness of double masking which has been trending lately.

https://news.abs-cbn.com/news/01/27/21/mask-shield-enough-but-doh-to-study-double-mask-option-vs-new-covid-19-variant

The Department of Health on Wednesday said it would look into whether or not wearing two face masks at a time would be more effective in avoiding COVID-19, with the new and more transmissible variant now in the country. 

This after double masking was recommended by United States' top infectious disease expert Dr. Anthony Fauci, who said it was “common sense” that having an added layer of physical covering can prevent respiratory droplets from spreading. 

Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire pointed out that Filipinos have already been using additional protection. 

(Because we think that wearing one mask and then a face shield is enough to be protected. We can see that from the time we implemented the mask and the face shield, our cases have not ballooned. Although cases have increased, it’s still manageable.) 

(We just need enough evidence so we can also recommend for this.)

(But I think having one mask, which guarantees us protection of 60 to 70% plus having a face shield and practicing physical distancing, which will give you about 99% protection is enough for now.)

Hopefully they will not recommend double masking. One is more than enough. Two masks plus a face shield would be farcical.

It's no wonder Duterte is going to get his vaccine in private. He's getting it in the bum!

https://news.abs-cbn.com/news/01/26/21/philippines-rodrigo-duterte-puwet-shot-covid-19-coronavirus-vaccine

It's final: President Rodrigo Duterte will get vaccinated against COVID-19 in private, Malacañang said on Tuesday, despite calls for the chief executive to get the jabs in public to boost the Filipino's confidence in the drug.  

Duterte "is taking the route" of the Britain's Queen Elizabeth and her husband to take the COVID-19 shots in private, his spokesman Harry Roque earlier said.  

Asked if this is already final, Roque said, "I think so. He has said so."  

"Sabi nga niya dahil sa puwet siya magpapasaksak, hindi pupuwedeng public," he told reporters in an online briefing.

(He said he would get the vaccine shots on his buttocks, so it cannot be in public.)

The DOH says there is nothing wrong with a butt shot. Why didn't Duterte just say so in the first place?

Picture of the Week: Don't Spit

I saw this sign hanging inside a huge shopping complex. A Chinese mall where you can buy all kinds of fake phones and shoes and bootleg DVDs. 

Is this a preventative sign or did they have problems that required the posting of this sign? Either way it's quite gross to imagine people spitting on the floors, walls, and stairs.

This sign was posted a long time before the pandemic hit. If people were having to be told pre-pandemic not spit everywhere it is no wonder the virus spread so quickly. Lots of gross habits in the Philippines.

Insurgency: DND-UP Deal Obsolete

This week the DND dropped a bombshell in its efforts to defeat the NPA. They announced they would no longer honor their decades old agreement with the University of the Philippines to not allow cops or troops on campus without prior notice. DND Secretary Lorenzana says the times they are a changing.

https://www.gmanetwork.com/news/news/nation/772312/lorenzana-says-decades-old-dnd-up-deal-obsolete/story/

The University of the Philippines has become a "safe haven for the enemies of the state," prompting the Department of the National Defense to terminate its pact with the university regarding the ban on the entry of state forces on the campus, Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana said Tuesday.

In a statement explaining the termination of the agreement, Lorenzana said the pact, which was signed in 1989, is already "obsolete."

"The times and circumstances have changed since the agreement was signed in 1989, eight years after the martial law ended. The agreement was a gesture of courtesy accorded to UP upon the University’s request," Lorenzana said.

He added that through the years the agreement was enforced, UP has become "the breeding ground of intransigent individuals and groups whose extremist beliefs have inveigled students to join their ranks to fight against the government."

"The country’s premier state university has become a safe haven for enemies of the state," Lorenzana said.

Several other reasons have been given for the termination of this accord including the bizarre allegation that there might be a shabu lab on campus.

https://www.rappler.com/nation/afp-uses-drug-war-justify-ending-up-dnd-accord

“What if there’s a shabu laboratory, for instance, inside the UP community or campus and we have a valid arrest warrant and search warrant?” Arevalo, a lawyer, said in a press briefing on Wednesday, January 20.

While that is not impossible it is better to stick with the main reason Lorenzana gave which is that the UP system has been a safe harbor for enemies of the state. To those who scoff at that claim Lorenzana asks them too explain why UP students have turned up dead in clashes between the NPA and AFP.

https://www.rappler.com/nation/lorenzana-dares-up-explain-deaths-students-alongside-communists

"I am open to dialogue with them. I am willing to talk to him (UP president Danilo Concepcion), pero sagutin muna nila kung bakit namatay ang mga taong ito kasama ang mga NPA (but they should first explain how these students died in the company of the New People's Army)," Lorenzana said in a press briefing on Wednesday, January 20.

He added, "UP should answer me truly why its students end up this way."

Lorenzana was referring to UP students who joined the New People's Army, the armed wing of the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP), and ended up dead after clashing with the military. Without presenting evidence, the Duterte government has claimed that there are recruitment efforts inside the university.

That bit of editorializing from Rappler is true enough but the fact that UP students have turned up dead in clashes with the AFP points to UP students being recruited somewhere down the line. The questions to be answered are when, where, and how? In fact the AFP has even made a list of 27 people they claim are dead or captured NPA who are also UP students.

https://www.rappler.com/newsbreak/fact-check/list-dead-captured-former-up-students-npa

A list on the Facebook page "Armed Forces of the Philippines Information Exchange" names 27 people who are supposedly "UP [University of the Philippines] students who became NPA [New People's Army] (died or captured)."  

The list was posted on Friday evening, January 22, and had at least 916 reactions, 58 comments, and 467 shares before it was taken down on Saturday morning. According to CrowdTangle data, there are at least 12 other Facebook pages that posted the same list on Friday.  

This claim is false.  

At least 8 names on the list are journalists, former government officials, lawyers, teachers, or entertainment personalities who are still alive and have not been captured as members of the NPA.

Even with 8 names being wrongly placed on this list that still leaves 19 others. Lorenzana says the AFP will apologize for this "unpardonable gaffe."

Accusations of recruitment aren't the only accusations being made. Parlade says there are on-going violations of the anti-terror law on the UP campus.

https://newsinfo.inquirer.net/1386972/top-ph-military-official-claims-violations-of-anti-terror-law-going-on-in-up

A top-ranking Philippine military official alleged that there are violations of the anti-terror law taking place at campuses of the University of the Philippines (UP).

Speaking to ABS CBN News Channel, Lt. Gen. Antonio Parlade Jr., spokesperson of National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict, said some members of the UP community have been helping to prepare “for some activities in the underground” like anniversaries of the New People’s Army, the armed wing of the Communist Party of the Philippines.

Without presenting evidence at hand, he said they are also aware that some UP community members have been providing materials for propaganda “to destroy the government and bring down the government like printing materials for making bombs.”

“They’re all happening in the campuses…They’ve been doing that ever since,” he said.

While the official said they are not blaming the university itself, he said they are blaming “tools that they are using to exercise their academic freedom.”

“One of those tools…you freely allow your faculty who are members of the Communist Party of the Philippines to conduct this subtle training and recruitment of these students,” he said.

Parlade also cited an old speech of Dr. Jose Dalisay Jr., former UP vice president for public affairs, who “acknowledged that recruitment in the UP has been happening ever since.”

In that speech Dr Jose Dalisay Jr. says the following:

Let’s go back to those questions: Is UP a recruiting ground for rebels? The only sane and honest way of answering this is to say of course it is; it always was. It’s no big secret that rebellion and resistance are coded into UP’s DNA, because we have always encouraged critical thinking, which in turn encourages—at least for a while, until complacency sets in—an attitude of dissidence, of anti-authoritarianism, of rejection of the status quo. That’s how knowledge happens, that’s how it begins, as every scientist since Galileo has affirmed.

Sounds bad right? But then he goes on to say this:

True, since the 1940s, many of the leaders of the Communist Party of the Philippines (the old and the new) have come from UP, from the fascinating Lava brothers to the English major Joma Sison. But UP has also bred Presidents Laurel, Roxas, Macapagal, Marcos, and Macapagal-Arroyo. Ramon Magsaysay and Fidel Ramos both spent time in UP before moving elsewhere. We can add hundreds of senators, congressmen, Supreme Court Justices, Cabinet secretaries, and icons of industry, the arts, the sciences and the professions to this list.

In other words, UP has attracted all kinds—communists and socialists, yes, but also capitalists, ultraconservative Catholics and born-again Christians, Rizalist cultists, military agents, the Ananda Marga, and Muslim separatists. Our 300,000 alumni can count saints as well as scoundrels, Jedi Masters and Sith Lords, democrats and demagogues.

https://www.up.edu.ph/the-freedom-of-intelligence/

Both Jedi Masters and Sith Lords come from the UP. That means the good and the bad. The communists and the boot-lickers. It seems very doubtful that Parlade understand the meaning of this speech or the meaning of intellectual freedom. While the UP is a center of recruitment for the CPP-NPA it's not as simple as the AFP and PNP demonstrating a show of force on campus to stop that. In fact it might spur more anti-government sentiment and thus more recruitment. But with all things we will see how it pans out.

We've seen a lot of inverted stories in the war against the insurgency like MILF terrorists helping out the AFP. This week the MNLF has declared the NPA persona-non-grata.

https://www.sunstar.com.ph/article/1883459/Zamboanga/Local-News/MNLF-declares-Abu-Sayyaf-bandits-persona-non-grata

THE base commanders of the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) under commander Ali Julkipli of Kalingalan Caluang, Sulu has declared the Abu Sayyaf bandits as persona non-grata in all of its camps and communities in the town.

The declaration is contained in a peace covenant Julkipli and his base commanders signed together with the Marine Battalion Landing Team-7 (MBLT-7) in a ceremony Tuesday, January 19, at the MBLT-7 headquarters in Karungdong village, Kalingalan Caluang.  

Colonel Hernanie Songano, 4th Marine Brigade commander, presided the activity.

Lieutenant Colonel Eduard Olaso, MBLT-7 commander, said in a statement that the denouncement of the MNLF against the presence of Abu Sayyaf bandits in their respective camps and communities is a clear manifestation that MNLF, as Peace Inclined Armed Groups (PIAG), is one with the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) in establishing and maintaining peace and order in Kalingalan Caluang town.

After dozens, hundreds, of LGUs declaring the NPA persona-non-grata now the MNLF has done the same. Despite the fact that they are a terrorist group the AFP says this is a "clear manifestation" that they are a Peace Inclined Armed Group (PIAG). Do they not see the irony of that acronym as well as this declaration? 

Another PIAG runs the BARMM. They are now entering their second year but they want a 3-year extension of the transition authority (BTA) so they can finalize everything.

https://www.rappler.com/nation/milf-seeking-bta-extension-not-for-power-success-peace-deal-murad-ebrahim 

Bangsamoro Interim Chief Minister Ahod "Al Haj Murad" Ebrahim made an impassioned push for a 3-year extension of the Bangsamoro Transition Authority (BTA), saying it is primarily to ensure peace in Mindanao, and not a bid to stay in power. 

"For us, it's not the power in the governance but it is the success of the implementation of the process of the peace agreement because it is the fruit of two decades of struggle," he said on Friday, January 22, during a virtual press conference. 

"I myself, I started by joining the struggle when I was 19 years old. Now I am 71 years old so I have spent almost my whole life in the struggle," he continued. 

Asked if MILF members, especially those with arms, will again resort to violence should Congress fail to grant a 3-year extension, Murad said he could not speculate on this but that there are surely "small groups" who could use the failure of a 3-year-old BTA to foment conflict. 

"We can't say now if they will go back to war but we know there are still groups that are just waiting for failure because they will exploit on that," said Murad.

So what exactly is the problem? Quite a lot it seems.

https://news.abs-cbn.com/news/12/04/20/3-year-extension-of-bangsamoro-transition-necessary-says-interior-minister

Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM) interior minister Naguib Sinarimbo said the "complex" transition process, which began in 2019 and was set to lapse in 2022, was disrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic, and had also faced budget delays in the past. 

"There's a consensus between the national government and Bangsamoro government, as well as the peace panel, that the essential work will not be finished in the remaining period," he told ANC's "Matters of Fact." 

There are many obligations that the national government has yet to fulfill, he added. Among them is the transfer of powers of national agencies to the Bangsamoro autonomous government. 

The Bangsamoro Transition Authority (BTA), which serves as the interim government, has yet to craft various codes such as the Election Code before parliamentary elections can be held in BARMM, said Sinarimbo, who is also the region's concurrent spokesperson. 

To complete the governance structure of BARMM, it has to enact the Administrative Code, Bangsamoro Revenue Code, Bangsamoro Electoral Code, Bangsamoro Local Government Code, Bangsamoro Education Code, Bangsamoro Civil Service Code, and Bangsamoro law for indigenous peoples. 

It has so far passed the Administrative Code and the Bangsamoro Development Plan. Under its normalization program, the BTA also needs to decommission 40,000 MILF combatants. Some 30 percent of the rebels have so far been decommissioned. 

"Admittedly, the COVID-19 has distracted the national government. But it's not only peculiar to the national government. Our focus in strengthening the institution of the Bangsamoro autonomous government was also disturbed," he said in Filipino.

They can blame COVID-19 and budget delays all they want. The real reason the MILF has not completed the transition process is because terrorists who have no idea what they are doing were handed the reins of government. It's as simple as that. The MILF is out of their depth.

The God Culture: The Philippines is the Center of the Center of Marine Biodiversity

The scientific fact that the Philippines is the "center of the center of marine biodiversity" plays a central role in Timothy Jay Schwab's claim that the Philippines is the land of creation and thus the location of the Garden of Eden, Ophir, Tarshish, etc. So central is this to his thesis that the second video The God Culture produced to promote their new book "The Search for King Solomon's Treasure" is focused on this claim.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zCgbHXVJePo

Where did creation occur? Marine life survived the flood. The center of the center of marine biodiversity on the entire planet is the Philippines. Epicenter of the coral triangle. The Philippines land of creation.

That is a very truncated statement of Tim's doctrine concerning the Philippines' marine biodiversity as being proof that the Philippines is the "land of creation." That phrase is problematic in itself because God created an entire planet not just one land. This claim is also discussed elsewhere in his videos.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tz2Bmcm05_A

4:23 So if we want to know the origin of man and animals the land of creation we know exactly where to look it's not difficult. We don't go looking for bones of man or land animals who rebooted during the flood as all but what was on the ark was wiped out but those creatures which were not wiped out by the flood, marine species. Find the most diverse population of marine life on earth and you have actually found the land of creation. Now, see that is science, observation, and even logic.

6:59 The Carpenter report on environmental biology of fishes reports "The Philippines is not only part of the center but is, in fact the epicentre of marine biodiversity, with the richest concentration of marine life on the entire planet." See not actually debatable is it. The Philippines is the land of creation

"Find the most diverse population of marine life on earth and you have actually found the land of creation. Now, see that is science, observation, and even logic."  That's actually called an assumption. Why would a diverse marine population tell us anything about the creation of man or land animals? Tim does not say. He simply asserts it as being true.

As I previously wrote Tim does not actually cite the Carpenter report's findings. Instead he cites a brief summary of the report. Let's look at the report and see what it actually says.

Carpenter Report

From the Synopsis:

Analysis of distribution data for 2983 species reveals a pattern of richness on a finer scale and identifies a peak of marine biodiversity in the central Philippine Islands and a secondary peak between peninsular Malaysia and Sumatra. This pattern is repeated in diverse habitat and higher taxa classes, most rigorously for marine shore fishes, supporting geohistorical hypotheses as the most general unifying explanations.

From the Methods section:

Related to the area of accumulation hypothesis is that the IMPA also serves as an area of refuge (Bellwood & Hughes 2001) because it encompasses the most extensive and diverse tropical shallow water marine habitat on earth.

pg. 5-6

Results:

Analysis of the 2983 combined ranges reveals the central Philippines as the area of highest diversity and endemism (Figure 5a, b). A secondary area of high diversity is located between the tip of Malaysia and Sumatra and extends along north- eastern Sumatra and northern Java (Figure 5a). Both diversity centers are repeated in subsets of data based on distribution, habitat, all inverte- brate taxa, and shore fishes.

pg. 6 

Discussions

Because of its greater area, Indonesia may eventually be shown to have a greater overall marine biodiversity than the Philippines. However, there is a higher concentration of species per unit area in the Philippines than anywhere in Indonesia, including Wallacea, according to our study.

pg.8 

The hypothesis that the IMPA is a center of origin is not falsified by the central Philippine epicenter of diversity. However, it is not readily apparent why geological events that promoted allopatric speciation may have been more prevalent in the Philippines than in Wallacea.

pg.10 

The overall conclusion from our study is that the diversity found in the IMPA is likely a combination of many processes, as evidenced by the secondary center of diversity we observed. However the higher number of species per unit area in the Philippines than elsewhere in the IMPA indicates that concentrated allopatric speciation and island integration across the Philippine archipelago appears to have played an important role in shaping the diversity of the IMPA. These hypotheses warrant further testing through refined vicariance biogeography methods and molecular phylogeographic approaches.

pg. 13

To sum up according to this paper, "multiple datasets show global maxima of marine biodiversity in the Indo–Malay–Philippines archipelago (IMPA)." However the epicenter of this diversity is the Philippines. This diversity consists in "the number of species per unit area" and not the number of unique species per se which only number 2,983. There is also a "secondary peak" of diversity "between peninsular Malaysia and Sumatra."   This map illustrates these findings.

The top 10% of species richness is in shades of red and yellow and the remaining decreasing increments of species richness are indicated by lighter shades of blue. The greatest diversity is red (1693 to 1736 species), followed by pink (1650 to 1692 species), yellow (1606 to 1649 species), and light yellow (1563 to 1605 species).

pg.7

The map in the bottom corner (f) shows how this diversity overlaps. The entire area is a global center of marine biodiversity "per unit area" not in the number of species per se which is only 2,983. The diversity in the IMPA stems from it being crowded and not because there is a high number of unique species in the area.

What does this mean for Tim's thesis that the Philippines has the most diverse marine life and is thus the land of creation? It means his claim is very misleading. It is readily apparent that he does not understand that the diversity consists in distribution of species "per unit area" and not in the number of unique species per se. In this study only the distribution of 2,983 species were studied. The region with the greatest number of those species "per unit area" is the Philippines. Those same species are distributed throughout the IMPA but in lower, but not by much, numbers. The entire area is a center of marine biodiversity with the Philippines being the epicenter.  Why is that? The author, Kent Carpenter, says more study is needed. 

There are far more then 2,983 marine species on the planet. Are there other areas with even more diverse populations of marine life? Of course.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2914069/

We analyze the state of knowledge of marine biodiversity based on the geographic distribution of georeferenced species records and regional taxonomic lists. A total of 12,046 marine species are reported in this paper for the Caribbean region. 

The total number of endemic species for those taxa is 1,563, which represents 25.6% of the species for these groups.

This paper on Caribbean marine biodiversity analyses 12,046 species and 25.6% of them are endemic, native, to the region. Likewise the Mediterranean Sea is a hotspot of biodiversity and boasts of many endemic species.

Mediterranean Sea

A rough estimate of more than 8,500 species of macroscopic marine organisms should live in the Mediterranean Sea, corresponding to somewhat between 4% and 18% of the world marine species. This is a conspicuous figure if one considers that the Mediterranean Sea is only 0.82% in surface area and 0.32% in volume as compared to the world ocean. 

As a result, the Mediterranean Sea is considered as a true hotspot of biodiversity [1, 2, 10], even by virtue of the high rates of endeCism it supports (an estimated 20–30% of marine species in the Mediterranean are considered endemic to the Basin.)

How does Tim account for this diversity in the Carribrean and the Mediterranean? Why does the marine biodiversity of the Philippines indicate it is the land of creation when it does not have the most unique species? The diversity of the Philippines is "per unit area" not per species. There are 6x more species in the Caribbean and 25.6% of those are endemic to the Caribbean which means they are not found in the Philippines. Likewise in the Mediterranean there are 8,500 unique species and 20-30% are endemic to that body of water. Why isn't the Caribbean the land of creation when it has more species? Tim does not explain any of this. He has probably not even considered it as he has not bothered to conduct any meaningful research into marine biodiversity. Instead he has taken a study about the Philippines which, as indicated by his lack of reference to it, he has not read and distorted its findings out of all proportion.

Closely tied to his appeal that the Philippines is the center of marine biodiversity on the planet is Tim's claim that there was no ocean before the flood. This claim is not rooted in science but in faith. Specifically faith in the narrative of the apocryphal Jewish text 2 Esdras.

pg. 270

2 Esdras narrows this down to a percentage we can understand. Only one-seventh of the Earth before the Flood was water which is approximately 15%. This is extremely significant as there are many who lose sight that the ocean did not exist at that time but was formed by the flood. 

The reason this matters is Genesis 2 is depicting the only major aqua nerve system on the Earth at that time.

pg. 270-271

 Tim's faith in 2 Esdras leads him to claim that only 1/7th of the earth was water before the flood.

2 Esdras 6:42 Upon the third day thou didst command that the waters should be gathered in the seventh part of the earth: six parts hast thou dried up, and kept them, to the intent that of these some being planted of God and tilled might serve thee.

In 2 Esdras 14 Ezra tell us that the books of Moses were burned up and God gives him a revelation to write them down. In fact he writes down 204 books, 70 of which remain secret.

2 Esdras:14:21: For thy law is burnt, therefore no man knoweth the things that are done of thee, or the work that shall begin.

37: So I took the five men, as he commanded me, and we went into the field, and remained there. 

38: And the next day, behold, a voice called me, saying, Esdras, open thy mouth, and drink that I give thee to drink. 

42: The Highest gave understanding unto the five men, and they wrote the wonderful visions of the night that were told, which they knew not: and they sat forty days, and they wrote in the day, and at night they ate bread. 

43: As for me. I spake in the day, and I held not my tongue by night. 

44: In forty days they wrote two hundred and four books. 

45: And it came to pass, when the forty days were filled, that the Highest spake, saying, The first that thou hast written publish openly, that the worthy and unworthy may read it: 

46: But keep the seventy last, that thou mayest deliver them only to such as be wise among the people: 

47: For in them is the spring of understanding, the fountain of wisdom, and the stream of knowledge. 

48: And I did so.

From this passage we learn that Ezra, inspired by God, dictated the books of Moses plus a lot of other things he withheld. That means faith in this text requires a belief that our current text of Genesis originates from this event and that we are missing a lot of other texts. 

Now let's read Timothy Jay Schwab's interpretation of Genesis 1.

Genesis 1:10 KJV

And God called the dry land Earth; and the gathering together of the waters called he Seas: and God saw that it was good.  

Hebrew:yam: יָם:sea, mighty river (Nile), salt sea.

The Hebrew yam can mean sea but it is also used for mighty river and even the Salt Sea or Dead Sea who is not a sea but a lake. Yam is obviously a generic word referring to a large body of water not narrowing down the specifics nor does such requirement exist. The word is not a definitive word for ocean nor does Genesis 1-6 ever describe an ocean but five mega-rivers which we will locate with perhaps lakes we call basins today.

pg. 271

According to Tim 2 Esdras is history which means Ezra rewrote the writings of Moses at the dictation of God himself. How does Tim explain this nonspecific language in Genesis 1 when 2 Esdras 6 is very specific? How does he explain the differing creation stories between Genesis 1 and 2 Esdras 6? 2 Esdras 6:49-52 relates an interesting narrative about Enoch and Leviathan which is nowhere to be found in Genesis.

49: Then didst thou ordain two living creatures, the one thou calledst Enoch, and the other Leviathan; 

50: And didst separate the one from the other: for the seventh part, namely, where the water was gathered together, might not hold them both.

51: Unto Enoch thou gavest one part, which was dried up the third day, that he should dwell in the same part, wherein are a thousand hills:

52: But unto Leviathan thou gavest the seventh part, namely, the moist; and hast kept him to be devoured of whom thou wilt, and when.

Which Enoch is this? It can't be the "seventh from Adam." Neither Ezra nor Tim explains.

Timothy Jay Schwab's belief that there was no ocean before the flood results in two absurdities. 

The first absurdity, as I pointed out elsewhere, is that is if the Garden of Eden is under the Sulu Sea, as Tim teaches, then that means there was no marine biodiversity in the Sulu Sea before the flood because there was no Sulu Sea until after the flood. So why would marine biodiversity which appears after the flood and not at creation tell us anything about "the land of creation?" This fact alone destroys his ridiculous claim that the Philippines' marine biodiversity indicates the Philippines is "the land of creation."

The second absurdity is that Tim has no explanation for saline waters and the creatures who thrive in them. On this planet there are freshwater ecosystems and there are saltwater ecosystems. The fact is freshwater marine life cannot survive in saltwater and vice versa.

https://www.livescience.com/32167-can-saltwater-fish-live-in-fresh-water.html

Some fish species can live in both freshwater and saltwater. These species are called euryhaline fish. However, most fish species can only survive in one or the other based on their salinity tolerance, or how much salt their bodies can handle. 

Most fish that can only tolerate narrow ranges of salinity and are highly sensitive to any changes in the levels of salt to the water in which they dwell. These fish are known as stenohaline species and include goldfish, which can live only in a freshwater environment. 

Reversely, tuna can exist exclusively in saltwater, according to the NMFS. 

In fact, freshwater fish will often be unable to survive if the salinity levels of their surrounding water reaches more than .05 percent, according to the National Biological Information Infrastructure (NBII).

Tim's thesis that there was no antediluvian world ocean means there would have to be no life which requires the world ocean for its habitat. This includes whales, dolphins, corals, sharks, clownfish, tuna, octopi, squids, and mollusks just to name a few. As Genesis 1 says:

21: And God created great whales, and every living creature that moveth, which the waters brought forth abundantly, after their kind, and every winged fowl after his kind: and God saw that it was good.

22: And God blessed them, saying, Be fruitful, and multiply, and fill the waters in the seas, and let fowl multiply in the earth.

Were blue whales, dolphins, sharks, clownfish, tuna, and all the rest swimming around in large freshwater lakes which made up only 1/7 of the earth's surface? And after the flood did they adapt to the salinity of the ocean? Just what is the origin of the world ocean's saline content? For Tim to have a coherent thesis that there was no ocean before the flood he will have to take the above facts into consideration and offer an explanation instead of quickly jumping to mapping out a supposed ancient river system in the ocean trenches.

Most importantly Tim offers no explanation why the waters with the most diversity means that is the land of creation. Like many of his claims it's an unfalsifiable ad hoc hypothesis for which he offers zero explanation. There are 6x more marine species in the Caribbean than in the "center of the center of marine biodiversity." The Philippines may have more species "per unit area" but the Philippines is less diverse in terms of actual species. The waters of the IMPA and the Philippines are simply more crowded.

We also see his scriptural explanations from 2 Esdras do not pan out. Of course 2 Esdras is not scripture and has never been scripture. Nor is it science. It is apocryphal Jewish literature which is certainly not solid ground on which to build a case for anything scientific.