Historic Mental Health Law Passes Senate

Wazzup Pilipinas!
 

In a historic vote, the Senate on Tuesday passed on third and final reading a national mental health policy, the first of its kind in the country. 

Senate Bill No. 1354 otherwise known as the Philippine Mental Health Law was sponsored and principally authored by Akbayan Senator Risa Hontiveros. It seeks to integrate mental health services and programs in the public health system.  The bill also mandates the government to put up basic mental health services at the community level and psychiatric, psychosocial and neurologic services in all regional, provincial and tertiary hospitals. 

Philippines: One of few countries in the world without a mental health law

"This is an historic day for all of us. After being one of the few countries left without a mental health policy, we are now one step closer to realizing a national mental health law to comprehensively address the Filipinos’ mental health needs and ensure that our rights as persons with mental health needs are protected and secured," Hontiveros said.  

Hontiveros thanked her fellow senators for supporting the passage of the said bill. She particularly commended the Senate's new Chairperson of the Committee on Health, Senator JV Ejercito, for backing the proposed measure. 

"Invisible illness, invisible war"

"Because of this measure, our people with mental health needs will no longer suffer silently in the dark. They will no longer endure an invisible illness and fight an invisible war," Hontiveros said. 

In 2012 alone, the World Health Organization (WHO) reported that there were 2,558 cases of Filipinos committing suicide, averaging to 7 suicide cases daily.  On the other hand, the Department of Health (DOH) counts that 1 in 5 Filipino adults have some form of mental illness, with schizophrenia, depression and anxiety topping the incidents of disorder. 

Hontiveros’ mental health bill was co-authored by Senators Vicente "Tito" Sotto, Loren Legarda, Antonio Trillanes, Bam Aquino, Sonny Angara, and Joel Villanueva.

Mental health advocates led by Miss International 2016 Kylie Verzosa, Antoinette Taus and Jerika Ejercito attended the senate session and lauded the passage of the said bill.

Launch of the ASEAN Data Science Explorers Competition

Wazzup Pilipinas!

To mark the historical milestone of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) turning 50, the ASEAN Foundation is working with strategic partners to establish several new initiatives centered around building a sense of ASEAN identity. The first of which is the “ASEAN Data Science Explorers” (ASEAN DSE), a regional competition jointly organised with SAP, the market leader in enterprise application software.

Targeting tertiary students across all 10 ASEAN member states from any discipline, this data analytics competition aims to enhance awareness and appreciation of the ASEAN community amongst ASEAN youths. Titled “Today’s Youth for Tomorrow’s World”, this competition will allow all ASEAN youths to play a key role in tackling today’s social issues facing the region and help create positive change for a better future.

By using the SAP BusinessObjects Cloud tool, the initiative encourages participants to deliver data-driven insights which highlight issues in ASEAN across six United Nation Sustainable Development Goals, namely (1) good health and well-being, (2) quality education, (3) gender equality, (4) clean water and sanitation, (5) decent work and economic growth, and (6) sustainable cities and communities. This will also work towards realising the ASEAN Socio-Cultural Community Blueprint 2025 vision of creating an ASEAN community that engages and benefits the people, and is inclusive, sustainable, resilient and dynamic.

The competition will be organised in all 10 ASEAN Member States in October, with winners of the respective in-country competitions going into a regional final that will take place in Jakarta, Indonesia in November this year.

Together with SAP, ASEAN Foundation invites tertiary students in the 10 member states to take part in this initiative and take part in leading social transformation within the ASEAN bloc. Students can find out more about the competition and register online via the ASEAN DSE’s official website: www.aseandse.org. The registration portal is open until 16 June 2017.


For further information about the competition, the application details of the ASEAN Data Science Explorers are below.

The ASEAN Data Science Explorers

Competition Details

Background and Introduction

The ASEAN Foundation and SAP are pleased to launch the ASEAN Data Science Explorers competition. Through a data analytics competition, this joint-initiative encourages ASEAN youths in all ten ASEAN Member States to harness the power of data, highlighting the key issues in ASEAN and derive meaningful insights that lead to innovative solutions. The competition is targeted at tertiary students of any major, including Political Science, from tertiary insitutions in ASEAN.

To register and find more information about the competition, visit: www.aseandse.org

Eligibility and Rules

Eligibility

The contest is open to individuals who:

• are nationals of ASEAN member countries (ie. Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam)
• are full-time tertiary students currently pursuing their Diploma / Undergraduate studies in one of the tertiary institutions in Southeast Asia (includes Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam); 
• are above the age of 16 as at the start of the Contest Period. Parental consent is required for participants under the age of 18

 

Rules and Regulation

• Each participant is only eligible to join ONE team.
• Each team will consist of 2 members from the same university. Both members of the team should hold a valid passport in the event that they are chosen to travel down to Jakarta for the regional competition.
• Each team is allowed to submit only one entry. This entry will be used to judge for qualifying rounds to finals. No amendment is allowed after submission has closed.
• The entry must be built using SAP BusinessObjects Cloud.
• Each team must adhere to the submission guidelines stated.
• Teams are allowed to use given data or data from other reliable sources (publicly accessible or via special permissions from the owner of the dataset) but they must be clearly acknowledged in the submission form.
• All submissions must be in English.
• All submitted material must be original and created by team members. If previously published content is used, it must be properly attributed to the original author.

Timeline/Process

Action	Timeframe
Online registration	2 May - 16 June 2017
Online submission	16 June - 11 September 2017
National finals (in 10 ASEAN Member States)	End October to early November
ASEAN Face-off	End November 2017

Final Selection and Prizes

Judging criteria:

• Visualization: Use of visual analysis, compelling charts and graphs to depict the datasets and give viewers meaningful insights.
• Data: volume, variety and relevance of data used to support your theme.
• Compelling story: Design and layout of storyboard. Plausible recommendations, creativity and overall flow of the story.
• User Experience: “Wow” Factor in total user experience.

Prizes

National finals:

Cash prizes for the top three winning teams across 10 countries:

• 1^st place: € 800 (will participate in the regional competition)
• 2^nd place: € 400
• 3^rd place: € 200

ASEAN Face-off:

Cash prizes for the top three winning teams:

• 1^st place: € 1800
• 2^nd place: € 1200
• 3^rd place: € 600

On Trump’s Invitation To Duterte To Visit The White House

Wazzup Pilipinas!

"It is rubbing salt in the wound. This is not a simple invitation. It is a virtual endorsement of the climate of killing and impunity in the Philippines.

It also exposes the foreign policy priorities of the Trump government in the region. It is willing to ignore the deteriorating human rights situation in one of its oldest allies in the region for superpower games.

I appeal to the good citizens of the United States, especially our American friends working on human rights and democracy, to oppose this planned meeting between US President Donald Trump and Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte. The American public must not allow their country to become complicit to the thousands of extrajudicial killings in the Philippines. We must not allow human rights and democracy to take the backseat in favor of narrow geopolitical interests.

I also urge my fellow lawmakers in the Philippines to use this as an opportunity to lead the effort in crafting a truly independent and progressive foreign policy founded on the principles of equality and human rights, particularly the right to life and dignity, and in the context of our other challenges, such as China and the West Philippine Sea."