News from home: Residency offers for health workers, P500 Noche Buena budget

MANILA, Philippines — Groups have warned of another exodus of healthcare workers as countries offer quick paths to residency, while an actual government agency has suggested that a P500 budget for Noche Buena will be enough amid rising prices — these are among our headlines and news stories from the past week we think you should know if you’re a Filipino based abroad.

Overseas Filipinos

• Filipino Nurses United is calling on the Philippine government to address the exodus of nurses and healthcare workers after countries such as New Zealand begin offering an immediate pathway to residency.
   
• The Department of Health and the Philippine-American Educational Foundation or Fulbright Philippines have inked a deal to create an upskilling program for healthcare workers, which would possibly entail scholarship programs as well as research and exchange programs.

Work and the economy

• The Department of Trade and Industry claimed this week that P500 would be enough to buy goods for Noche Buena, a claim that is technically correct but is at odds with how Filipinos usually celebrate Christmas.
   
• President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr said they brought home investment pledges worth P9.8 billion following his recent trip to Belgium for the ASEAN-EU Commemorative Summit. Whether or not these pledges would come into fruition remains to be seen. 

Politics and the nation

• The House of Representatives has already approved the creation of the controversial Maharlika Investment Fund, which Marcos Jr. certified as urgent last week. Find out if the House member from your hometown was among the authors of the bill here.

  Senators said that they intend to “study” the measure carefully.

• Lawmakers also quickly approved the National Citizens Service Training Program Act, which has been criticized for being a rebranded version of the Reserve Officers’ Training Corps program.
   

• The National Telecommunications Commission has released the implementing rules and regulations of the SIM Card Registration Act, kicking off the 180-day registration registration period back home. The agency has called on the public to register ahead of the deadline to keep their mobile numbers.

  The NTC said it will work with the Department of Information and Communications to put up registration centers for those without access to the internet or are in remote areas.
   

• The Philippines is no longer the top consumer of Pornhub media, based on the website’s yearend data. The country went down to the ninth spot, with 94% of local traffic from mobile phones.

• Filipina actress Dolly de Leon was nominated at the prestigious Golden Globe Awards for her performance in the movie "Triangle of Sadness".

• Jose Maria Sison, founder of the Communist Party of the Philippines, has died. He was 83 and had been living in self-exile in the Netherlands since the late 1980s.

You can view last week’s rundown here or sign up for the newsletter here.

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