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SEVERAL mountain barangays in Cebu City are suffering from a lack of water and experiencing incidents of bush fires as a result of the dry hot season.This prompted the City Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council (CDRRMC) to pass a resolution declaring 28 barangays under a state of calamity following the adverse impact of the weather phenomenon El Niño on the farmers in these areas.These include the barangays of Budlaan, Binaliw, Paril, Taptap, Pulangbato, Guba, Cambinocot, Pamutan, Sirao, Sapangdaku, Sudlon 1, Sudlon 2, Bonbon, Buot, and Tagbao.City Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Office (CDRRMO) head Harold Alcontin, in a phone interview on Sunday, March 24, 2024, said over 500 farmers have stopped planting their usual crops due to damage caused by the lack of water which is a result of the dry spell.He was unable to provide a complete list of affected barangays.In an earlier report, City Agriculturist Joelito Baclayon said there are 115 hectares of farm lands in the 28 barangays affected by the extreme weather condition as of March.There are currently 10,719 registered farmers in Cebu City growing lettuce, cabbages, cauliflower, cucumber, eggplants, sweet corn and tomatoes, among others.According to a previous SunStar report, Cebu City’s agriculture industry could produce between P500,000 to P1 million worth of crops daily. The figures could go as high as more than a million a day during peak season.“We have to act now. We will not wait for the worse to come,” Alcontin said in a mix of Cebuano and English.Alcontin said the CDRRMC resolution has been endorsed to the office of City Councilors Phillip Zafra and Joel Garganera for the City Council to adopt it.Once the council declares these barangays under a state of calamity, Alcontin said the barangays can use their calamity funds, while the City Government can use its Local Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Fund (LDRRMF).He said the City currently has P600 million in its calamity and quick response fund and P100 million in its LDRRMF.He said Mayor Michael Rama instructed them to first use the P100 million LDRRMF, considering it’s only the first quarter of the year.The City Agriculture Department (CAD) has prepared P97 million which will be used for assistance to the farmers.SunStar Cebu tried to reach Baclayon on Sunday to get more details, but to no avail.Alcontin said one of the measures they are implementing now is distributing water in the mountain barangays.He said they are also coordinating with the Metropolitan Cebu Water District to deploy their trucks for water rations in Barangays Buot and Pulangbato.In previous reports, Baclayon said 40 percent of the city’s food supply come from its mountain barangays.Alcontin said one of their assignments is to ensure that the city’s food supply is not hampered, hence the declaration of a state of calamity.Alcontin said the CAD and the Department of Veterinary Medicine and Fisheries are also tasked to ensure food supplies in the city remain stable amid the El Niño.The Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration (Pagasa) declared on Friday, March 22, the start of the “Philippine Summer.”Alfredo Quiblat Jr., chief of Pagasa Visayas, earlier announced that Cebu has officially been under a dry spell since the last week of February.A dry spell refers to three consecutive months of below-normal rainfall, or a drop of 21 percent to 60 percent, or two consecutive months of way below-normal rainfall, or a drop of more than 60 percent.The El Niño phenomenon leads to decreased precipitation or, in some cases, a complete absence of rainfall, which can significantly impact crop yields and pose various environmental and economic challenges.Pagasa also warned that the phenomenon may persist until the end of May. (JJL) What do you mean by slot? Philippines Major technology companies signed a pact Friday to voluntarily adopt “reasonable precautions” to prevent artificial intelligence tools from being used to disrupt democratic elections around the world.Executives from Adobe, Amazon, Google, IBM, Meta, Microsoft, OpenAI and TikTok gathered at the Munich Security Conference to announce a new framework for how they respond to AI-generated deepfakes that deliberately trick voters. Twelve other companies — including Elon Musk's X — are also signing on to the accord.“Everybody recognizes that no one tech company, no one government, no one civil society organization is able to deal with the advent of this technology and its possible nefarious use on their own,” said Nick Clegg, president of global affairs for Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, in an interview ahead of the summit.The accord is largely symbolic, but targets increasingly realistic AI-generated images, audio and video "that deceptively fake or alter the appearance, voice, or actions of political candidates, election officials, and other key stakeholders in a democratic election, or that provide false information to voters about when, where, and how they can lawfully vote.”The companies aren't committing to ban or remove deepfakes. Instead, the accord outlines methods they will use to try to detect and label deceptive AI content when it is created or distributed on their platforms. It notes the companies will share best practices with each other and provide “swift and proportionate responses” when that content starts to spread.The vagueness of the commitments and lack of any binding requirements likely helped win over a diverse swath of companies, but disappointed advocates were looking for stronger assurances.“The language isn't quite as strong as one might have expected,” said Rachel Orey, senior associate director of the Elections Project at the Bipartisan Policy Center. “I think we should give credit where credit is due, and acknowledge that the companies do have a vested interest in their tools not being used to undermine free and fair elections. That said, it is voluntary, and we'll be keeping an eye on whether they follow through.”Clegg said each company “quite rightly has its own set of content policies.”“This is not attempting to try to impose a straitjacket on everybody," he said. "And in any event, no one in the industry thinks that you can deal with a whole new technological paradigm by sweeping things under the rug and trying to play whack-a-mole and finding everything that you think may mislead someone.”Several political leaders from Europe and the U.S. also joined Friday’s announcement. European Commission Vice President Vera Jourova said while such an agreement can’t be comprehensive, “it contains very impactful and positive elements.” She also urged fellow politicians to take responsibility to not use AI tools deceptively and warned that AI-fueled disinformation could bring about “the end of democracy, not only in the EU member states.”The agreement at the German city's annual security meeting comes as more than 50 countries are due to hold national elections in 2024. Bangladesh, Taiwan, Pakistan and most recently Indonesia have already done so.Attempts at AI-generated election interference have already begun, such as when AI robocalls that mimicked U.S. President Joe Biden’s voice tried to discourage people from voting in New Hampshire’s primary election last month.Just days before Slovakia’s elections in November, AI-generated audio recordings impersonated a candidate discussing plans to raise beer prices and rig the election. Fact-checkers scrambled to identify them as false as they spread across social media.Politicians also have experimented with the technology, from using AI chatbots to communicate with voters to adding AI-generated images to ads.The accord calls on platforms to “pay attention to context and in particular to safeguarding educational, documentary, artistic, satirical, and political expression.”It said the companies will focus on transparency to users about their policies and work to educate the public about how they can avoid falling for AI fakes.Most companies have previously said they’re putting safeguards on their own generative AI tools that can manipulate images and sound, while also working to identify and label AI-generated content so that social media users know if what they’re seeing is real. But most of those proposed solutions haven't yet rolled out and the companies have faced pressure to do more.That pressure is heightened in the U.S., where Congress has yet to pass laws regulating AI in politics, leaving companies to largely govern themselves.The Federal Communications Commission recently confirmed AI-generated audio clips in robocalls are against the law, but that doesn't cover audio deepfakes when they circulate on social media or in campaign advertisements.Many social media companies already have policies in place to deter deceptive posts about electoral processes — AI-generated or not. Meta says it removes misinformation about “the dates, locations, times, and methods for voting, voter registration, or census participation” as well as other false posts meant to interfere with someone's civic participation.Jeff Allen, co-founder of the Integrity Institute and a former Facebook data scientist, said the accord seems like a “positive step” but he'd still like to see social media companies taking other actions to combat misinformation, such as building content recommendation systems that don't prioritize engagement above all else.Lisa Gilbert, executive vice president of the advocacy group Public Citizen, argued Friday that the accord is “not enough” and AI companies should “hold back technology” such as hyper-realistic text-to-video generators “until there are substantial and adequate safeguards in place to help us avert many potential problems.”In addition to the companies that helped broker Friday's agreement, other signatories include chatbot developers Anthropic and Inflection AI; voice-clone startup ElevenLabs; chip designer Arm Holdings; security companies McAfee and TrendMicro; and Stability AI, known for making the image-generator Stable Diffusion.Notably absent is another popular AI image-generator, Midjourney. The San Francisco-based startup didn't immediately respond to a request for comment Friday.The inclusion of X — not mentioned in an earlier announcement about the pending accord — was one of the surprises of Friday's agreement. Musk sharply curtailed content-moderation teams after taking over the former Twitter and has described himself as a “free speech absolutist.”In a statement Friday, X CEO Linda Yaccarino said “every citizen and company has a responsibility to safeguard free and fair elections."“X is dedicated to playing its part, collaborating with peers to combat AI threats while also protecting free speech and maximizing transparency,” she said. (AP)

Major technology companies signed a pact Friday to voluntarily adopt “reasonable precautions” to prevent artificial intelligence tools from being used to disrupt democratic elections around the world.Executives from Adobe, Amazon, Google, IBM, Meta, Microsoft, OpenAI and TikTok gathered at the Munich Security Conference to announce a new framework for how they respond to AI-generated deepfakes that deliberately trick voters. Twelve other companies — including Elon Musk's X — are also signing on to the accord.“Everybody recognizes that no one tech company, no one government, no one civil society organization is able to deal with the advent of this technology and its possible nefarious use on their own,” said Nick Clegg, president of global affairs for Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, in an interview ahead of the summit.The accord is largely symbolic, but targets increasingly realistic AI-generated images, audio and video "that deceptively fake or alter the appearance, voice, or actions of political candidates, election officials, and other key stakeholders in a democratic election, or that provide false information to voters about when, where, and how they can lawfully vote.”The companies aren't committing to ban or remove deepfakes. Instead, the accord outlines methods they will use to try to detect and label deceptive AI content when it is created or distributed on their platforms. It notes the companies will share best practices with each other and provide “swift and proportionate responses” when that content starts to spread.The vagueness of the commitments and lack of any binding requirements likely helped win over a diverse swath of companies, but disappointed advocates were looking for stronger assurances.“The language isn't quite as strong as one might have expected,” said Rachel Orey, senior associate director of the Elections Project at the Bipartisan Policy Center. “I think we should give credit where credit is due, and acknowledge that the companies do have a vested interest in their tools not being used to undermine free and fair elections. That said, it is voluntary, and we'll be keeping an eye on whether they follow through.”Clegg said each company “quite rightly has its own set of content policies.”“This is not attempting to try to impose a straitjacket on everybody," he said. "And in any event, no one in the industry thinks that you can deal with a whole new technological paradigm by sweeping things under the rug and trying to play whack-a-mole and finding everything that you think may mislead someone.”Several political leaders from Europe and the U.S. also joined Friday’s announcement. European Commission Vice President Vera Jourova said while such an agreement can’t be comprehensive, “it contains very impactful and positive elements.” She also urged fellow politicians to take responsibility to not use AI tools deceptively and warned that AI-fueled disinformation could bring about “the end of democracy, not only in the EU member states.”The agreement at the German city's annual security meeting comes as more than 50 countries are due to hold national elections in 2024. Bangladesh, Taiwan, Pakistan and most recently Indonesia have already done so.Attempts at AI-generated election interference have already begun, such as when AI robocalls that mimicked U.S. President Joe Biden’s voice tried to discourage people from voting in New Hampshire’s primary election last month.Just days before Slovakia’s elections in November, AI-generated audio recordings impersonated a candidate discussing plans to raise beer prices and rig the election. Fact-checkers scrambled to identify them as false as they spread across social media.Politicians also have experimented with the technology, from using AI chatbots to communicate with voters to adding AI-generated images to ads.The accord calls on platforms to “pay attention to context and in particular to safeguarding educational, documentary, artistic, satirical, and political expression.”It said the companies will focus on transparency to users about their policies and work to educate the public about how they can avoid falling for AI fakes.Most companies have previously said they’re putting safeguards on their own generative AI tools that can manipulate images and sound, while also working to identify and label AI-generated content so that social media users know if what they’re seeing is real. But most of those proposed solutions haven't yet rolled out and the companies have faced pressure to do more.That pressure is heightened in the U.S., where Congress has yet to pass laws regulating AI in politics, leaving companies to largely govern themselves.The Federal Communications Commission recently confirmed AI-generated audio clips in robocalls are against the law, but that doesn't cover audio deepfakes when they circulate on social media or in campaign advertisements.Many social media companies already have policies in place to deter deceptive posts about electoral processes — AI-generated or not. Meta says it removes misinformation about “the dates, locations, times, and methods for voting, voter registration, or census participation” as well as other false posts meant to interfere with someone's civic participation.Jeff Allen, co-founder of the Integrity Institute and a former Facebook data scientist, said the accord seems like a “positive step” but he'd still like to see social media companies taking other actions to combat misinformation, such as building content recommendation systems that don't prioritize engagement above all else.Lisa Gilbert, executive vice president of the advocacy group Public Citizen, argued Friday that the accord is “not enough” and AI companies should “hold back technology” such as hyper-realistic text-to-video generators “until there are substantial and adequate safeguards in place to help us avert many potential problems.”In addition to the companies that helped broker Friday's agreement, other signatories include chatbot developers Anthropic and Inflection AI; voice-clone startup ElevenLabs; chip designer Arm Holdings; security companies McAfee and TrendMicro; and Stability AI, known for making the image-generator Stable Diffusion.Notably absent is another popular AI image-generator, Midjourney. The San Francisco-based startup didn't immediately respond to a request for comment Friday.The inclusion of X — not mentioned in an earlier announcement about the pending accord — was one of the surprises of Friday's agreement. Musk sharply curtailed content-moderation teams after taking over the former Twitter and has described himself as a “free speech absolutist.”In a statement Friday, X CEO Linda Yaccarino said “every citizen and company has a responsibility to safeguard free and fair elections."“X is dedicated to playing its part, collaborating with peers to combat AI threats while also protecting free speech and maximizing transparency,” she said. (AP) Has the Philippines ever qualified for the World Cup? THE Local Water Utilities Administration (LWUA) has insisted on its power to implement a partial intervention in the Metropolitan Cebu Water District (MCWD) for a period of six months, saying this is for the purpose of investigating issues surrounding the water district.In a press conference at the MCWD building Thursday, March 21, 2024, LWUA Chairman Ronnie Ong said the LWUA Board of Trustees issued Resolution No. 35, s. 2023 to “set aside” MCWD’s five-member board of directors led by chairman Jose Daluz III, so that the LWUA can check on a number of issues in MCWD.The investigation is for these reasons: MCWD has high non-revenue water, allegedly failed to comply with procurement laws, and sought a questionable 70 percent water rate hike.OveractingOng was accompanied in the press conference by LWUA Administrator Jose Moises Salonga and the three LWUA officers that Salonga had last Friday designated as members of MCWD’s interim board of directors to take over MCWD’s board.“Ang OA (overacting) naman na ayaw magpa-investigate,” Salonga said, after his letter informing Daluz and MCWD General Manager Edgar Donoso of LWUA’s March 15 takeover of MCWD’s board was basically ignored by the duo, who questioned LWUA’s authority to undertake the takeover.(They are overacting when they refuse to be investigated.)Are they taking over?Ong clarified that they are not taking over the water district but only “setting aside” the current board in order for them to investigate and check all the documents of MCWD. The current board refers to Daluz, Miguelito Pato and Jodelyn May Seno, appointees of the late mayor Edgardo Labella; and Danilo Ortiz and Earl Bonachita, appointees of Cebu City Mayor Michael Rama.Salonga said it is just a six-month partial intervention, with “setting aside” meaning “suspension.”“Nobody is being replaced. They are being set aside for an interim board to take its place for six months,” Salonga said.Salonga said it seems the MCWD board is questioning the powers of LWUA to investigate when these powers are found in Presidential Decree 198.“It seems they want us to ask permission first before taking regulatory action. It seems unusual,” Salonga said.Salonga said LWUA can intervene even without court processes, and that questioning the legality of their intervention is frustrating the will of the law, which impedes their ability to do their job.Salonga said LWUA hopes they will come to an agreement to end the matter peacefully and lawfully.On receiving LWUA’s notice of takeover Friday, Daluz had said he would abide by LWUA’s order, only for him and fellow board members Pato and Seno to say Wednesday that they would continue to function as MCWD’s board pending the resolution on the legality of LWUA’s takeover.On Monday, Donoso had said he would continue to recognize the Daluz-led board while he awaited the opinion of the Office of the Government Corporate Counsel (OGCC) on Salonga’s appointment of the interim board composed of Maria Rosan D. Perez, Noel A. Samonte and Anabelle C. Gravador.Closed-door meetingInsisting on the “status quo,” Daluz III said LWUA and MCWD had agreed during their closed-door meeting Thursday to wait for the opinion of the OGCC. However, Salonga questioned the legality of the action of MCWD general manager Donoso to declare a status quo.“The pronouncement that the GM can pronounce a status quo order, I cannot find any legal basis... That is for the court to decide,” Salonga said. “They do not have the standing to proclaim a status quo order.” What will happen after six months?Salonga said they will wait for the findings, as he assured that nobody is guilty yet.Ong said the problem is the MCWD’s current board is not open to any investigation, when in a government agency everything should be transparent.Ong said they are just doing their job and they want to check some procurements, the Commission on Audit’s findings on MCWD, as well as the non-revenue water (NRW).Ong said from 2019, there was at least a 23 percent loss, equivalent to 14 million gallons of water per day, due to NRW. In 2022, this reached 32 percent, equivalent to 21 million gallons of water per day. This year, they’ve been told that it has already reached 36 percent.Salonga said there has been about a P120 million loss in revenue every year because of non-revenue water.Vested interests?In a separate press conference held before LWUA’s, Daluz said they are not fighting the LWUA as an institution, but only its chairman of the board, Ronnie Ong.“This is all about Ronnie Ong. We will not involve the entire LWUA or the institution because there are some people in LWUA that are not agreeing to this action of Ronnie Ong. I just want to be clear: We are not fighting the LWUA institution, the people in LWUA. It is only Ronnie Ong, the chairman, who has interest to take over the MCWD,” Daluz said.Sought for his reaction, Ong assured that there is no vested interest in LWUA’s action. Ong said he has no personal interest in MCWD, not even business interest, emphasizing that he is not the one who is using the MCWD building for political reasons.Ong was referring to the event of the Kilusang Bagong Pilipinas Cebu City Chapter held at the MCWD Social Hall last March 16.In a press conference at the PDG Law Office in the North Reclamation Area last Wednesday, Daluz explained that the group was affiliated with the Office of the Vice President, so he could not refuse their request.Daluz said it is their corporate responsibility to cater to the requests of other government agencies, and that as MCWD chairman he was also invited to attend the event.He said the event was approved two weeks before the March 15 notice of intervention, emphasizing that they could not just cancel the event due to the turn of events.Political pressure Salonga denied that there was political pressure behind LWUA’s action, despite the issue stemming from the conflict between Mayor Rama and Daluz.Salonga said they are trying to be apolitical in their intervention.If the MCWD board will not abide by LWUA’s partial intervention, Salonga said they will resort to the due process of law. He did not specify what this meant.However, Daluz said Wednesday that he believed that the Rama administration had a hand in the matter.“If we say that Mike Rama had a hand in this, I’ve been hearing that for a long time. That has already happened. That’s already been proven that he has already a hand in this,” Daluz said in a mix of Cebuano and English.Daluz also said Cebu City Police Office Director Ireneo Dalogdog would not have acted without the directive of the mayor. On Wednesday, there were at least 10 police personnel deployed outside the MCWD building.Ong and Salonga said they requested police assistance to ensure the safety of the interim board.Asked if they sought police assistance because the interim board had already been harassed, Salonga said no.When Ong and Salonga, along with LWUA’s interim board of directors, arrived at the MCWD building on Thursday, they were welcomed by Daluz, Donoso and MCWD secretary Seno.Meeting the governorAfter the press conference, the LWUA and MCWD officials went to the Provincial Capitol and met with Gov. Gwendolyn Garcia.MCWD vice chairman Pato was present at the meeting with the governor but not at the press conference at MCWD.According to a video sent by MCWD spokesperson Minerva Gerodias, Garcia said it is good to come together to talk and come up with a win-win solution for the benefit of the Cebuanos.Ong said LWUA and MCWD had agreed to wait for the opinion of the OGCC, which serves as the corporate counsel for both entities. While awaiting the opinion, Ong said, MCWD had agreed to provide LWUA with the necessary documents.Last November, Garcia had recognized the LWUA’s position acknowledging Daluz, Pato and Seno as board members in the trio’s dispute with Mayor Rama, who had replaced them last Oct. 31 with Melquiades Feliciano, Aristotle Batuhan and Nelson Yuvallos.Last June, Daluz said Rama had been trying to remove him as chairman of the MCWD board since his board refused the mayor’s move to “privatize” MCWD, and after Daluz suggested that younger and fresh names of their party coalition run in the 2025 elections.Rama, a senior citizen and a seasoned politician, is seeking reelection in 2025.

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THE Local Water Utilities Administration (LWUA) has insisted on its power to implement a partial intervention in the Metropolitan Cebu Water District (MCWD) for a period of six months, saying this is for the purpose of investigating issues surrounding the water district.In a press conference at the MCWD building Thursday, March 21, 2024, LWUA Chairman Ronnie Ong said the LWUA Board of Trustees issued Resolution No. 35, s. 2023 to “set aside” MCWD’s five-member board of directors led by chairman Jose Daluz III, so that the LWUA can check on a number of issues in MCWD.The investigation is for these reasons: MCWD has high non-revenue water, allegedly failed to comply with procurement laws, and sought a questionable 70 percent water rate hike.OveractingOng was accompanied in the press conference by LWUA Administrator Jose Moises Salonga and the three LWUA officers that Salonga had last Friday designated as members of MCWD’s interim board of directors to take over MCWD’s board.“Ang OA (overacting) naman na ayaw magpa-investigate,” Salonga said, after his letter informing Daluz and MCWD General Manager Edgar Donoso of LWUA’s March 15 takeover of MCWD’s board was basically ignored by the duo, who questioned LWUA’s authority to undertake the takeover.(They are overacting when they refuse to be investigated.)Are they taking over?Ong clarified that they are not taking over the water district but only “setting aside” the current board in order for them to investigate and check all the documents of MCWD. The current board refers to Daluz, Miguelito Pato and Jodelyn May Seno, appointees of the late mayor Edgardo Labella; and Danilo Ortiz and Earl Bonachita, appointees of Cebu City Mayor Michael Rama.Salonga said it is just a six-month partial intervention, with “setting aside” meaning “suspension.”“Nobody is being replaced. They are being set aside for an interim board to take its place for six months,” Salonga said.Salonga said it seems the MCWD board is questioning the powers of LWUA to investigate when these powers are found in Presidential Decree 198.“It seems they want us to ask permission first before taking regulatory action. It seems unusual,” Salonga said.Salonga said LWUA can intervene even without court processes, and that questioning the legality of their intervention is frustrating the will of the law, which impedes their ability to do their job.Salonga said LWUA hopes they will come to an agreement to end the matter peacefully and lawfully.On receiving LWUA’s notice of takeover Friday, Daluz had said he would abide by LWUA’s order, only for him and fellow board members Pato and Seno to say Wednesday that they would continue to function as MCWD’s board pending the resolution on the legality of LWUA’s takeover.On Monday, Donoso had said he would continue to recognize the Daluz-led board while he awaited the opinion of the Office of the Government Corporate Counsel (OGCC) on Salonga’s appointment of the interim board composed of Maria Rosan D. Perez, Noel A. Samonte and Anabelle C. Gravador.Closed-door meetingInsisting on the “status quo,” Daluz III said LWUA and MCWD had agreed during their closed-door meeting Thursday to wait for the opinion of the OGCC. However, Salonga questioned the legality of the action of MCWD general manager Donoso to declare a status quo.“The pronouncement that the GM can pronounce a status quo order, I cannot find any legal basis... That is for the court to decide,” Salonga said. “They do not have the standing to proclaim a status quo order.” What will happen after six months?Salonga said they will wait for the findings, as he assured that nobody is guilty yet.Ong said the problem is the MCWD’s current board is not open to any investigation, when in a government agency everything should be transparent.Ong said they are just doing their job and they want to check some procurements, the Commission on Audit’s findings on MCWD, as well as the non-revenue water (NRW).Ong said from 2019, there was at least a 23 percent loss, equivalent to 14 million gallons of water per day, due to NRW. In 2022, this reached 32 percent, equivalent to 21 million gallons of water per day. This year, they’ve been told that it has already reached 36 percent.Salonga said there has been about a P120 million loss in revenue every year because of non-revenue water.Vested interests?In a separate press conference held before LWUA’s, Daluz said they are not fighting the LWUA as an institution, but only its chairman of the board, Ronnie Ong.“This is all about Ronnie Ong. We will not involve the entire LWUA or the institution because there are some people in LWUA that are not agreeing to this action of Ronnie Ong. I just want to be clear: We are not fighting the LWUA institution, the people in LWUA. It is only Ronnie Ong, the chairman, who has interest to take over the MCWD,” Daluz said.Sought for his reaction, Ong assured that there is no vested interest in LWUA’s action. Ong said he has no personal interest in MCWD, not even business interest, emphasizing that he is not the one who is using the MCWD building for political reasons.Ong was referring to the event of the Kilusang Bagong Pilipinas Cebu City Chapter held at the MCWD Social Hall last March 16.In a press conference at the PDG Law Office in the North Reclamation Area last Wednesday, Daluz explained that the group was affiliated with the Office of the Vice President, so he could not refuse their request.Daluz said it is their corporate responsibility to cater to the requests of other government agencies, and that as MCWD chairman he was also invited to attend the event.He said the event was approved two weeks before the March 15 notice of intervention, emphasizing that they could not just cancel the event due to the turn of events.Political pressure Salonga denied that there was political pressure behind LWUA’s action, despite the issue stemming from the conflict between Mayor Rama and Daluz.Salonga said they are trying to be apolitical in their intervention.If the MCWD board will not abide by LWUA’s partial intervention, Salonga said they will resort to the due process of law. He did not specify what this meant.However, Daluz said Wednesday that he believed that the Rama administration had a hand in the matter.“If we say that Mike Rama had a hand in this, I’ve been hearing that for a long time. That has already happened. That’s already been proven that he has already a hand in this,” Daluz said in a mix of Cebuano and English.Daluz also said Cebu City Police Office Director Ireneo Dalogdog would not have acted without the directive of the mayor. On Wednesday, there were at least 10 police personnel deployed outside the MCWD building.Ong and Salonga said they requested police assistance to ensure the safety of the interim board.Asked if they sought police assistance because the interim board had already been harassed, Salonga said no.When Ong and Salonga, along with LWUA’s interim board of directors, arrived at the MCWD building on Thursday, they were welcomed by Daluz, Donoso and MCWD secretary Seno.Meeting the governorAfter the press conference, the LWUA and MCWD officials went to the Provincial Capitol and met with Gov. Gwendolyn Garcia.MCWD vice chairman Pato was present at the meeting with the governor but not at the press conference at MCWD.According to a video sent by MCWD spokesperson Minerva Gerodias, Garcia said it is good to come together to talk and come up with a win-win solution for the benefit of the Cebuanos.Ong said LWUA and MCWD had agreed to wait for the opinion of the OGCC, which serves as the corporate counsel for both entities. While awaiting the opinion, Ong said, MCWD had agreed to provide LWUA with the necessary documents.Last November, Garcia had recognized the LWUA’s position acknowledging Daluz, Pato and Seno as board members in the trio’s dispute with Mayor Rama, who had replaced them last Oct. 31 with Melquiades Feliciano, Aristotle Batuhan and Nelson Yuvallos.Last June, Daluz said Rama had been trying to remove him as chairman of the MCWD board since his board refused the mayor’s move to “privatize” MCWD, and after Daluz suggested that younger and fresh names of their party coalition run in the 2025 elections.Rama, a senior citizen and a seasoned politician, is seeking reelection in 2025. Has the Philippines ever qualified for the World Cup? SEVERAL mountain barangays in Cebu City are suffering from a lack of water and experiencing incidents of bush fires as a result of the dry hot season.This prompted the City Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council (CDRRMC) to pass a resolution declaring 28 barangays under a state of calamity following the adverse impact of the weather phenomenon El Niño on the farmers in these areas.These include the barangays of Budlaan, Binaliw, Paril, Taptap, Pulangbato, Guba, Cambinocot, Pamutan, Sirao, Sapangdaku, Sudlon 1, Sudlon 2, Bonbon, Buot, and Tagbao.City Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Office (CDRRMO) head Harold Alcontin, in a phone interview on Sunday, March 24, 2024, said over 500 farmers have stopped planting their usual crops due to damage caused by the lack of water which is a result of the dry spell.He was unable to provide a complete list of affected barangays.In an earlier report, City Agriculturist Joelito Baclayon said there are 115 hectares of farm lands in the 28 barangays affected by the extreme weather condition as of March.There are currently 10,719 registered farmers in Cebu City growing lettuce, cabbages, cauliflower, cucumber, eggplants, sweet corn and tomatoes, among others.According to a previous SunStar report, Cebu City’s agriculture industry could produce between P500,000 to P1 million worth of crops daily. The figures could go as high as more than a million a day during peak season.“We have to act now. We will not wait for the worse to come,” Alcontin said in a mix of Cebuano and English.Alcontin said the CDRRMC resolution has been endorsed to the office of City Councilors Phillip Zafra and Joel Garganera for the City Council to adopt it.Once the council declares these barangays under a state of calamity, Alcontin said the barangays can use their calamity funds, while the City Government can use its Local Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Fund (LDRRMF).He said the City currently has P600 million in its calamity and quick response fund and P100 million in its LDRRMF.He said Mayor Michael Rama instructed them to first use the P100 million LDRRMF, considering it’s only the first quarter of the year.The City Agriculture Department (CAD) has prepared P97 million which will be used for assistance to the farmers.SunStar Cebu tried to reach Baclayon on Sunday to get more details, but to no avail.Alcontin said one of the measures they are implementing now is distributing water in the mountain barangays.He said they are also coordinating with the Metropolitan Cebu Water District to deploy their trucks for water rations in Barangays Buot and Pulangbato.In previous reports, Baclayon said 40 percent of the city’s food supply come from its mountain barangays.Alcontin said one of their assignments is to ensure that the city’s food supply is not hampered, hence the declaration of a state of calamity.Alcontin said the CAD and the Department of Veterinary Medicine and Fisheries are also tasked to ensure food supplies in the city remain stable amid the El Niño.The Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration (Pagasa) declared on Friday, March 22, the start of the “Philippine Summer.”Alfredo Quiblat Jr., chief of Pagasa Visayas, earlier announced that Cebu has officially been under a dry spell since the last week of February.A dry spell refers to three consecutive months of below-normal rainfall, or a drop of 21 percent to 60 percent, or two consecutive months of way below-normal rainfall, or a drop of more than 60 percent.The El Niño phenomenon leads to decreased precipitation or, in some cases, a complete absence of rainfall, which can significantly impact crop yields and pose various environmental and economic challenges.Pagasa also warned that the phenomenon may persist until the end of May. (JJL)

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SEVERAL mountain barangays in Cebu City are suffering from a lack of water and experiencing incidents of bush fires as a result of the dry hot season.This prompted the City Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council (CDRRMC) to pass a resolution declaring 28 barangays under a state of calamity following the adverse impact of the weather phenomenon El Niño on the farmers in these areas.These include the barangays of Budlaan, Binaliw, Paril, Taptap, Pulangbato, Guba, Cambinocot, Pamutan, Sirao, Sapangdaku, Sudlon 1, Sudlon 2, Bonbon, Buot, and Tagbao.City Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Office (CDRRMO) head Harold Alcontin, in a phone interview on Sunday, March 24, 2024, said over 500 farmers have stopped planting their usual crops due to damage caused by the lack of water which is a result of the dry spell.He was unable to provide a complete list of affected barangays.In an earlier report, City Agriculturist Joelito Baclayon said there are 115 hectares of farm lands in the 28 barangays affected by the extreme weather condition as of March.There are currently 10,719 registered farmers in Cebu City growing lettuce, cabbages, cauliflower, cucumber, eggplants, sweet corn and tomatoes, among others.According to a previous SunStar report, Cebu City’s agriculture industry could produce between P500,000 to P1 million worth of crops daily. The figures could go as high as more than a million a day during peak season.“We have to act now. We will not wait for the worse to come,” Alcontin said in a mix of Cebuano and English.Alcontin said the CDRRMC resolution has been endorsed to the office of City Councilors Phillip Zafra and Joel Garganera for the City Council to adopt it.Once the council declares these barangays under a state of calamity, Alcontin said the barangays can use their calamity funds, while the City Government can use its Local Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Fund (LDRRMF).He said the City currently has P600 million in its calamity and quick response fund and P100 million in its LDRRMF.He said Mayor Michael Rama instructed them to first use the P100 million LDRRMF, considering it’s only the first quarter of the year.The City Agriculture Department (CAD) has prepared P97 million which will be used for assistance to the farmers.SunStar Cebu tried to reach Baclayon on Sunday to get more details, but to no avail.Alcontin said one of the measures they are implementing now is distributing water in the mountain barangays.He said they are also coordinating with the Metropolitan Cebu Water District to deploy their trucks for water rations in Barangays Buot and Pulangbato.In previous reports, Baclayon said 40 percent of the city’s food supply come from its mountain barangays.Alcontin said one of their assignments is to ensure that the city’s food supply is not hampered, hence the declaration of a state of calamity.Alcontin said the CAD and the Department of Veterinary Medicine and Fisheries are also tasked to ensure food supplies in the city remain stable amid the El Niño.The Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration (Pagasa) declared on Friday, March 22, the start of the “Philippine Summer.”Alfredo Quiblat Jr., chief of Pagasa Visayas, earlier announced that Cebu has officially been under a dry spell since the last week of February.A dry spell refers to three consecutive months of below-normal rainfall, or a drop of 21 percent to 60 percent, or two consecutive months of way below-normal rainfall, or a drop of more than 60 percent.The El Niño phenomenon leads to decreased precipitation or, in some cases, a complete absence of rainfall, which can significantly impact crop yields and pose various environmental and economic challenges.Pagasa also warned that the phenomenon may persist until the end of May. (JJL), check the following table to see what categories most online casinos in the Philippines fit in.

Major technology companies signed a pact Friday to voluntarily adopt “reasonable precautions” to prevent artificial intelligence tools from being used to disrupt democratic elections around the world.Executives from Adobe, Amazon, Google, IBM, Meta, Microsoft, OpenAI and TikTok gathered at the Munich Security Conference to announce a new framework for how they respond to AI-generated deepfakes that deliberately trick voters. Twelve other companies — including Elon Musk's X — are also signing on to the accord.“Everybody recognizes that no one tech company, no one government, no one civil society organization is able to deal with the advent of this technology and its possible nefarious use on their own,” said Nick Clegg, president of global affairs for Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, in an interview ahead of the summit.The accord is largely symbolic, but targets increasingly realistic AI-generated images, audio and video "that deceptively fake or alter the appearance, voice, or actions of political candidates, election officials, and other key stakeholders in a democratic election, or that provide false information to voters about when, where, and how they can lawfully vote.”The companies aren't committing to ban or remove deepfakes. Instead, the accord outlines methods they will use to try to detect and label deceptive AI content when it is created or distributed on their platforms. It notes the companies will share best practices with each other and provide “swift and proportionate responses” when that content starts to spread.The vagueness of the commitments and lack of any binding requirements likely helped win over a diverse swath of companies, but disappointed advocates were looking for stronger assurances.“The language isn't quite as strong as one might have expected,” said Rachel Orey, senior associate director of the Elections Project at the Bipartisan Policy Center. “I think we should give credit where credit is due, and acknowledge that the companies do have a vested interest in their tools not being used to undermine free and fair elections. That said, it is voluntary, and we'll be keeping an eye on whether they follow through.”Clegg said each company “quite rightly has its own set of content policies.”“This is not attempting to try to impose a straitjacket on everybody," he said. "And in any event, no one in the industry thinks that you can deal with a whole new technological paradigm by sweeping things under the rug and trying to play whack-a-mole and finding everything that you think may mislead someone.”Several political leaders from Europe and the U.S. also joined Friday’s announcement. European Commission Vice President Vera Jourova said while such an agreement can’t be comprehensive, “it contains very impactful and positive elements.” She also urged fellow politicians to take responsibility to not use AI tools deceptively and warned that AI-fueled disinformation could bring about “the end of democracy, not only in the EU member states.”The agreement at the German city's annual security meeting comes as more than 50 countries are due to hold national elections in 2024. Bangladesh, Taiwan, Pakistan and most recently Indonesia have already done so.Attempts at AI-generated election interference have already begun, such as when AI robocalls that mimicked U.S. President Joe Biden’s voice tried to discourage people from voting in New Hampshire’s primary election last month.Just days before Slovakia’s elections in November, AI-generated audio recordings impersonated a candidate discussing plans to raise beer prices and rig the election. Fact-checkers scrambled to identify them as false as they spread across social media.Politicians also have experimented with the technology, from using AI chatbots to communicate with voters to adding AI-generated images to ads.The accord calls on platforms to “pay attention to context and in particular to safeguarding educational, documentary, artistic, satirical, and political expression.”It said the companies will focus on transparency to users about their policies and work to educate the public about how they can avoid falling for AI fakes.Most companies have previously said they’re putting safeguards on their own generative AI tools that can manipulate images and sound, while also working to identify and label AI-generated content so that social media users know if what they’re seeing is real. But most of those proposed solutions haven't yet rolled out and the companies have faced pressure to do more.That pressure is heightened in the U.S., where Congress has yet to pass laws regulating AI in politics, leaving companies to largely govern themselves.The Federal Communications Commission recently confirmed AI-generated audio clips in robocalls are against the law, but that doesn't cover audio deepfakes when they circulate on social media or in campaign advertisements.Many social media companies already have policies in place to deter deceptive posts about electoral processes — AI-generated or not. Meta says it removes misinformation about “the dates, locations, times, and methods for voting, voter registration, or census participation” as well as other false posts meant to interfere with someone's civic participation.Jeff Allen, co-founder of the Integrity Institute and a former Facebook data scientist, said the accord seems like a “positive step” but he'd still like to see social media companies taking other actions to combat misinformation, such as building content recommendation systems that don't prioritize engagement above all else.Lisa Gilbert, executive vice president of the advocacy group Public Citizen, argued Friday that the accord is “not enough” and AI companies should “hold back technology” such as hyper-realistic text-to-video generators “until there are substantial and adequate safeguards in place to help us avert many potential problems.”In addition to the companies that helped broker Friday's agreement, other signatories include chatbot developers Anthropic and Inflection AI; voice-clone startup ElevenLabs; chip designer Arm Holdings; security companies McAfee and TrendMicro; and Stability AI, known for making the image-generator Stable Diffusion.Notably absent is another popular AI image-generator, Midjourney. The San Francisco-based startup didn't immediately respond to a request for comment Friday.The inclusion of X — not mentioned in an earlier announcement about the pending accord — was one of the surprises of Friday's agreement. Musk sharply curtailed content-moderation teams after taking over the former Twitter and has described himself as a “free speech absolutist.”In a statement Friday, X CEO Linda Yaccarino said “every citizen and company has a responsibility to safeguard free and fair elections."“X is dedicated to playing its part, collaborating with peers to combat AI threats while also protecting free speech and maximizing transparency,” she said. (AP) What do you mean by slot? . Check out our ✨ guide for the best online casino in Philippines and find your next favourite site. Read more about PH casino 🛡️ safety, bonuses and more. here is how to register at an online casino site in the Philippines:

SEVERAL mountain barangays in Cebu City are suffering from a lack of water and experiencing incidents of bush fires as a result of the dry hot season.This prompted the City Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council (CDRRMC) to pass a resolution declaring 28 barangays under a state of calamity following the adverse impact of the weather phenomenon El Niño on the farmers in these areas.These include the barangays of Budlaan, Binaliw, Paril, Taptap, Pulangbato, Guba, Cambinocot, Pamutan, Sirao, Sapangdaku, Sudlon 1, Sudlon 2, Bonbon, Buot, and Tagbao.City Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Office (CDRRMO) head Harold Alcontin, in a phone interview on Sunday, March 24, 2024, said over 500 farmers have stopped planting their usual crops due to damage caused by the lack of water which is a result of the dry spell.He was unable to provide a complete list of affected barangays.In an earlier report, City Agriculturist Joelito Baclayon said there are 115 hectares of farm lands in the 28 barangays affected by the extreme weather condition as of March.There are currently 10,719 registered farmers in Cebu City growing lettuce, cabbages, cauliflower, cucumber, eggplants, sweet corn and tomatoes, among others.According to a previous SunStar report, Cebu City’s agriculture industry could produce between P500,000 to P1 million worth of crops daily. The figures could go as high as more than a million a day during peak season.“We have to act now. We will not wait for the worse to come,” Alcontin said in a mix of Cebuano and English.Alcontin said the CDRRMC resolution has been endorsed to the office of City Councilors Phillip Zafra and Joel Garganera for the City Council to adopt it.Once the council declares these barangays under a state of calamity, Alcontin said the barangays can use their calamity funds, while the City Government can use its Local Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Fund (LDRRMF).He said the City currently has P600 million in its calamity and quick response fund and P100 million in its LDRRMF.He said Mayor Michael Rama instructed them to first use the P100 million LDRRMF, considering it’s only the first quarter of the year.The City Agriculture Department (CAD) has prepared P97 million which will be used for assistance to the farmers.SunStar Cebu tried to reach Baclayon on Sunday to get more details, but to no avail.Alcontin said one of the measures they are implementing now is distributing water in the mountain barangays.He said they are also coordinating with the Metropolitan Cebu Water District to deploy their trucks for water rations in Barangays Buot and Pulangbato.In previous reports, Baclayon said 40 percent of the city’s food supply come from its mountain barangays.Alcontin said one of their assignments is to ensure that the city’s food supply is not hampered, hence the declaration of a state of calamity.Alcontin said the CAD and the Department of Veterinary Medicine and Fisheries are also tasked to ensure food supplies in the city remain stable amid the El Niño.The Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration (Pagasa) declared on Friday, March 22, the start of the “Philippine Summer.”Alfredo Quiblat Jr., chief of Pagasa Visayas, earlier announced that Cebu has officially been under a dry spell since the last week of February.A dry spell refers to three consecutive months of below-normal rainfall, or a drop of 21 percent to 60 percent, or two consecutive months of way below-normal rainfall, or a drop of more than 60 percent.The El Niño phenomenon leads to decreased precipitation or, in some cases, a complete absence of rainfall, which can significantly impact crop yields and pose various environmental and economic challenges.Pagasa also warned that the phenomenon may persist until the end of May. (JJL) Has the Philippines ever qualified for the World Cup? . It’s always a good idea to take your time and make sure you’ve found the best online casino in the Philippines on the online gambling market that can give you what you want.

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Major technology companies signed a pact Friday to voluntarily adopt “reasonable precautions” to prevent artificial intelligence tools from being used to disrupt democratic elections around the world.Executives from Adobe, Amazon, Google, IBM, Meta, Microsoft, OpenAI and TikTok gathered at the Munich Security Conference to announce a new framework for how they respond to AI-generated deepfakes that deliberately trick voters. Twelve other companies — including Elon Musk's X — are also signing on to the accord.“Everybody recognizes that no one tech company, no one government, no one civil society organization is able to deal with the advent of this technology and its possible nefarious use on their own,” said Nick Clegg, president of global affairs for Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, in an interview ahead of the summit.The accord is largely symbolic, but targets increasingly realistic AI-generated images, audio and video "that deceptively fake or alter the appearance, voice, or actions of political candidates, election officials, and other key stakeholders in a democratic election, or that provide false information to voters about when, where, and how they can lawfully vote.”The companies aren't committing to ban or remove deepfakes. Instead, the accord outlines methods they will use to try to detect and label deceptive AI content when it is created or distributed on their platforms. It notes the companies will share best practices with each other and provide “swift and proportionate responses” when that content starts to spread.The vagueness of the commitments and lack of any binding requirements likely helped win over a diverse swath of companies, but disappointed advocates were looking for stronger assurances.“The language isn't quite as strong as one might have expected,” said Rachel Orey, senior associate director of the Elections Project at the Bipartisan Policy Center. “I think we should give credit where credit is due, and acknowledge that the companies do have a vested interest in their tools not being used to undermine free and fair elections. That said, it is voluntary, and we'll be keeping an eye on whether they follow through.”Clegg said each company “quite rightly has its own set of content policies.”“This is not attempting to try to impose a straitjacket on everybody," he said. "And in any event, no one in the industry thinks that you can deal with a whole new technological paradigm by sweeping things under the rug and trying to play whack-a-mole and finding everything that you think may mislead someone.”Several political leaders from Europe and the U.S. also joined Friday’s announcement. European Commission Vice President Vera Jourova said while such an agreement can’t be comprehensive, “it contains very impactful and positive elements.” She also urged fellow politicians to take responsibility to not use AI tools deceptively and warned that AI-fueled disinformation could bring about “the end of democracy, not only in the EU member states.”The agreement at the German city's annual security meeting comes as more than 50 countries are due to hold national elections in 2024. Bangladesh, Taiwan, Pakistan and most recently Indonesia have already done so.Attempts at AI-generated election interference have already begun, such as when AI robocalls that mimicked U.S. President Joe Biden’s voice tried to discourage people from voting in New Hampshire’s primary election last month.Just days before Slovakia’s elections in November, AI-generated audio recordings impersonated a candidate discussing plans to raise beer prices and rig the election. Fact-checkers scrambled to identify them as false as they spread across social media.Politicians also have experimented with the technology, from using AI chatbots to communicate with voters to adding AI-generated images to ads.The accord calls on platforms to “pay attention to context and in particular to safeguarding educational, documentary, artistic, satirical, and political expression.”It said the companies will focus on transparency to users about their policies and work to educate the public about how they can avoid falling for AI fakes.Most companies have previously said they’re putting safeguards on their own generative AI tools that can manipulate images and sound, while also working to identify and label AI-generated content so that social media users know if what they’re seeing is real. But most of those proposed solutions haven't yet rolled out and the companies have faced pressure to do more.That pressure is heightened in the U.S., where Congress has yet to pass laws regulating AI in politics, leaving companies to largely govern themselves.The Federal Communications Commission recently confirmed AI-generated audio clips in robocalls are against the law, but that doesn't cover audio deepfakes when they circulate on social media or in campaign advertisements.Many social media companies already have policies in place to deter deceptive posts about electoral processes — AI-generated or not. Meta says it removes misinformation about “the dates, locations, times, and methods for voting, voter registration, or census participation” as well as other false posts meant to interfere with someone's civic participation.Jeff Allen, co-founder of the Integrity Institute and a former Facebook data scientist, said the accord seems like a “positive step” but he'd still like to see social media companies taking other actions to combat misinformation, such as building content recommendation systems that don't prioritize engagement above all else.Lisa Gilbert, executive vice president of the advocacy group Public Citizen, argued Friday that the accord is “not enough” and AI companies should “hold back technology” such as hyper-realistic text-to-video generators “until there are substantial and adequate safeguards in place to help us avert many potential problems.”In addition to the companies that helped broker Friday's agreement, other signatories include chatbot developers Anthropic and Inflection AI; voice-clone startup ElevenLabs; chip designer Arm Holdings; security companies McAfee and TrendMicro; and Stability AI, known for making the image-generator Stable Diffusion.Notably absent is another popular AI image-generator, Midjourney. The San Francisco-based startup didn't immediately respond to a request for comment Friday.The inclusion of X — not mentioned in an earlier announcement about the pending accord — was one of the surprises of Friday's agreement. Musk sharply curtailed content-moderation teams after taking over the former Twitter and has described himself as a “free speech absolutist.”In a statement Friday, X CEO Linda Yaccarino said “every citizen and company has a responsibility to safeguard free and fair elections."“X is dedicated to playing its part, collaborating with peers to combat AI threats while also protecting free speech and maximizing transparency,” she said. (AP) licensed online casinos THE Local Water Utilities Administration (LWUA) has insisted on its power to implement a partial intervention in the Metropolitan Cebu Water District (MCWD) for a period of six months, saying this is for the purpose of investigating issues surrounding the water district.In a press conference at the MCWD building Thursday, March 21, 2024, LWUA Chairman Ronnie Ong said the LWUA Board of Trustees issued Resolution No. 35, s. 2023 to “set aside” MCWD’s five-member board of directors led by chairman Jose Daluz III, so that the LWUA can check on a number of issues in MCWD.The investigation is for these reasons: MCWD has high non-revenue water, allegedly failed to comply with procurement laws, and sought a questionable 70 percent water rate hike.OveractingOng was accompanied in the press conference by LWUA Administrator Jose Moises Salonga and the three LWUA officers that Salonga had last Friday designated as members of MCWD’s interim board of directors to take over MCWD’s board.“Ang OA (overacting) naman na ayaw magpa-investigate,” Salonga said, after his letter informing Daluz and MCWD General Manager Edgar Donoso of LWUA’s March 15 takeover of MCWD’s board was basically ignored by the duo, who questioned LWUA’s authority to undertake the takeover.(They are overacting when they refuse to be investigated.)Are they taking over?Ong clarified that they are not taking over the water district but only “setting aside” the current board in order for them to investigate and check all the documents of MCWD. The current board refers to Daluz, Miguelito Pato and Jodelyn May Seno, appointees of the late mayor Edgardo Labella; and Danilo Ortiz and Earl Bonachita, appointees of Cebu City Mayor Michael Rama.Salonga said it is just a six-month partial intervention, with “setting aside” meaning “suspension.”“Nobody is being replaced. They are being set aside for an interim board to take its place for six months,” Salonga said.Salonga said it seems the MCWD board is questioning the powers of LWUA to investigate when these powers are found in Presidential Decree 198.“It seems they want us to ask permission first before taking regulatory action. It seems unusual,” Salonga said.Salonga said LWUA can intervene even without court processes, and that questioning the legality of their intervention is frustrating the will of the law, which impedes their ability to do their job.Salonga said LWUA hopes they will come to an agreement to end the matter peacefully and lawfully.On receiving LWUA’s notice of takeover Friday, Daluz had said he would abide by LWUA’s order, only for him and fellow board members Pato and Seno to say Wednesday that they would continue to function as MCWD’s board pending the resolution on the legality of LWUA’s takeover.On Monday, Donoso had said he would continue to recognize the Daluz-led board while he awaited the opinion of the Office of the Government Corporate Counsel (OGCC) on Salonga’s appointment of the interim board composed of Maria Rosan D. Perez, Noel A. Samonte and Anabelle C. Gravador.Closed-door meetingInsisting on the “status quo,” Daluz III said LWUA and MCWD had agreed during their closed-door meeting Thursday to wait for the opinion of the OGCC. However, Salonga questioned the legality of the action of MCWD general manager Donoso to declare a status quo.“The pronouncement that the GM can pronounce a status quo order, I cannot find any legal basis... That is for the court to decide,” Salonga said. “They do not have the standing to proclaim a status quo order.” What will happen after six months?Salonga said they will wait for the findings, as he assured that nobody is guilty yet.Ong said the problem is the MCWD’s current board is not open to any investigation, when in a government agency everything should be transparent.Ong said they are just doing their job and they want to check some procurements, the Commission on Audit’s findings on MCWD, as well as the non-revenue water (NRW).Ong said from 2019, there was at least a 23 percent loss, equivalent to 14 million gallons of water per day, due to NRW. In 2022, this reached 32 percent, equivalent to 21 million gallons of water per day. This year, they’ve been told that it has already reached 36 percent.Salonga said there has been about a P120 million loss in revenue every year because of non-revenue water.Vested interests?In a separate press conference held before LWUA’s, Daluz said they are not fighting the LWUA as an institution, but only its chairman of the board, Ronnie Ong.“This is all about Ronnie Ong. We will not involve the entire LWUA or the institution because there are some people in LWUA that are not agreeing to this action of Ronnie Ong. I just want to be clear: We are not fighting the LWUA institution, the people in LWUA. It is only Ronnie Ong, the chairman, who has interest to take over the MCWD,” Daluz said.Sought for his reaction, Ong assured that there is no vested interest in LWUA’s action. Ong said he has no personal interest in MCWD, not even business interest, emphasizing that he is not the one who is using the MCWD building for political reasons.Ong was referring to the event of the Kilusang Bagong Pilipinas Cebu City Chapter held at the MCWD Social Hall last March 16.In a press conference at the PDG Law Office in the North Reclamation Area last Wednesday, Daluz explained that the group was affiliated with the Office of the Vice President, so he could not refuse their request.Daluz said it is their corporate responsibility to cater to the requests of other government agencies, and that as MCWD chairman he was also invited to attend the event.He said the event was approved two weeks before the March 15 notice of intervention, emphasizing that they could not just cancel the event due to the turn of events.Political pressure Salonga denied that there was political pressure behind LWUA’s action, despite the issue stemming from the conflict between Mayor Rama and Daluz.Salonga said they are trying to be apolitical in their intervention.If the MCWD board will not abide by LWUA’s partial intervention, Salonga said they will resort to the due process of law. He did not specify what this meant.However, Daluz said Wednesday that he believed that the Rama administration had a hand in the matter.“If we say that Mike Rama had a hand in this, I’ve been hearing that for a long time. That has already happened. That’s already been proven that he has already a hand in this,” Daluz said in a mix of Cebuano and English.Daluz also said Cebu City Police Office Director Ireneo Dalogdog would not have acted without the directive of the mayor. On Wednesday, there were at least 10 police personnel deployed outside the MCWD building.Ong and Salonga said they requested police assistance to ensure the safety of the interim board.Asked if they sought police assistance because the interim board had already been harassed, Salonga said no.When Ong and Salonga, along with LWUA’s interim board of directors, arrived at the MCWD building on Thursday, they were welcomed by Daluz, Donoso and MCWD secretary Seno.Meeting the governorAfter the press conference, the LWUA and MCWD officials went to the Provincial Capitol and met with Gov. Gwendolyn Garcia.MCWD vice chairman Pato was present at the meeting with the governor but not at the press conference at MCWD.According to a video sent by MCWD spokesperson Minerva Gerodias, Garcia said it is good to come together to talk and come up with a win-win solution for the benefit of the Cebuanos.Ong said LWUA and MCWD had agreed to wait for the opinion of the OGCC, which serves as the corporate counsel for both entities. While awaiting the opinion, Ong said, MCWD had agreed to provide LWUA with the necessary documents.Last November, Garcia had recognized the LWUA’s position acknowledging Daluz, Pato and Seno as board members in the trio’s dispute with Mayor Rama, who had replaced them last Oct. 31 with Melquiades Feliciano, Aristotle Batuhan and Nelson Yuvallos.Last June, Daluz said Rama had been trying to remove him as chairman of the MCWD board since his board refused the mayor’s move to “privatize” MCWD, and after Daluz suggested that younger and fresh names of their party coalition run in the 2025 elections.Rama, a senior citizen and a seasoned politician, is seeking reelection in 2025.

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Major technology companies signed a pact Friday to voluntarily adopt “reasonable precautions” to prevent artificial intelligence tools from being used to disrupt democratic elections around the world.Executives from Adobe, Amazon, Google, IBM, Meta, Microsoft, OpenAI and TikTok gathered at the Munich Security Conference to announce a new framework for how they respond to AI-generated deepfakes that deliberately trick voters. Twelve other companies — including Elon Musk's X — are also signing on to the accord.“Everybody recognizes that no one tech company, no one government, no one civil society organization is able to deal with the advent of this technology and its possible nefarious use on their own,” said Nick Clegg, president of global affairs for Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, in an interview ahead of the summit.The accord is largely symbolic, but targets increasingly realistic AI-generated images, audio and video "that deceptively fake or alter the appearance, voice, or actions of political candidates, election officials, and other key stakeholders in a democratic election, or that provide false information to voters about when, where, and how they can lawfully vote.”The companies aren't committing to ban or remove deepfakes. Instead, the accord outlines methods they will use to try to detect and label deceptive AI content when it is created or distributed on their platforms. It notes the companies will share best practices with each other and provide “swift and proportionate responses” when that content starts to spread.The vagueness of the commitments and lack of any binding requirements likely helped win over a diverse swath of companies, but disappointed advocates were looking for stronger assurances.“The language isn't quite as strong as one might have expected,” said Rachel Orey, senior associate director of the Elections Project at the Bipartisan Policy Center. “I think we should give credit where credit is due, and acknowledge that the companies do have a vested interest in their tools not being used to undermine free and fair elections. That said, it is voluntary, and we'll be keeping an eye on whether they follow through.”Clegg said each company “quite rightly has its own set of content policies.”“This is not attempting to try to impose a straitjacket on everybody," he said. "And in any event, no one in the industry thinks that you can deal with a whole new technological paradigm by sweeping things under the rug and trying to play whack-a-mole and finding everything that you think may mislead someone.”Several political leaders from Europe and the U.S. also joined Friday’s announcement. European Commission Vice President Vera Jourova said while such an agreement can’t be comprehensive, “it contains very impactful and positive elements.” She also urged fellow politicians to take responsibility to not use AI tools deceptively and warned that AI-fueled disinformation could bring about “the end of democracy, not only in the EU member states.”The agreement at the German city's annual security meeting comes as more than 50 countries are due to hold national elections in 2024. Bangladesh, Taiwan, Pakistan and most recently Indonesia have already done so.Attempts at AI-generated election interference have already begun, such as when AI robocalls that mimicked U.S. President Joe Biden’s voice tried to discourage people from voting in New Hampshire’s primary election last month.Just days before Slovakia’s elections in November, AI-generated audio recordings impersonated a candidate discussing plans to raise beer prices and rig the election. Fact-checkers scrambled to identify them as false as they spread across social media.Politicians also have experimented with the technology, from using AI chatbots to communicate with voters to adding AI-generated images to ads.The accord calls on platforms to “pay attention to context and in particular to safeguarding educational, documentary, artistic, satirical, and political expression.”It said the companies will focus on transparency to users about their policies and work to educate the public about how they can avoid falling for AI fakes.Most companies have previously said they’re putting safeguards on their own generative AI tools that can manipulate images and sound, while also working to identify and label AI-generated content so that social media users know if what they’re seeing is real. But most of those proposed solutions haven't yet rolled out and the companies have faced pressure to do more.That pressure is heightened in the U.S., where Congress has yet to pass laws regulating AI in politics, leaving companies to largely govern themselves.The Federal Communications Commission recently confirmed AI-generated audio clips in robocalls are against the law, but that doesn't cover audio deepfakes when they circulate on social media or in campaign advertisements.Many social media companies already have policies in place to deter deceptive posts about electoral processes — AI-generated or not. Meta says it removes misinformation about “the dates, locations, times, and methods for voting, voter registration, or census participation” as well as other false posts meant to interfere with someone's civic participation.Jeff Allen, co-founder of the Integrity Institute and a former Facebook data scientist, said the accord seems like a “positive step” but he'd still like to see social media companies taking other actions to combat misinformation, such as building content recommendation systems that don't prioritize engagement above all else.Lisa Gilbert, executive vice president of the advocacy group Public Citizen, argued Friday that the accord is “not enough” and AI companies should “hold back technology” such as hyper-realistic text-to-video generators “until there are substantial and adequate safeguards in place to help us avert many potential problems.”In addition to the companies that helped broker Friday's agreement, other signatories include chatbot developers Anthropic and Inflection AI; voice-clone startup ElevenLabs; chip designer Arm Holdings; security companies McAfee and TrendMicro; and Stability AI, known for making the image-generator Stable Diffusion.Notably absent is another popular AI image-generator, Midjourney. The San Francisco-based startup didn't immediately respond to a request for comment Friday.The inclusion of X — not mentioned in an earlier announcement about the pending accord — was one of the surprises of Friday's agreement. Musk sharply curtailed content-moderation teams after taking over the former Twitter and has described himself as a “free speech absolutist.”In a statement Friday, X CEO Linda Yaccarino said “every citizen and company has a responsibility to safeguard free and fair elections."“X is dedicated to playing its part, collaborating with peers to combat AI threats while also protecting free speech and maximizing transparency,” she said. (AP) What do you mean by slot?

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