Cambodia PM orders home treatment for COVID-19 patients as hospitals strain

PHNOM PENH - Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen ordered health officials on Tuesday to prepare to treat coronavirus patients at home, as the country's biggest COVID-19 outbreak so far tests the capacity of its fragile healthcare system.

Cambodia had one of the world's smallest coronavirus caseloads until six weeks ago, but an outbreak in late February has led to its first 22 COVID-19 deaths and a five-fold jump in cases to 2,824.

A total of 1,003 patients are currently being treated in hospital that are near capacity, Hun Sen said in an audio message shared widely on Tuesday and reported by local media.

"We can't accept all patients in case that cases increase further," Hun Sen said.

"We have fewer people recovered and many people being admitted for treatment and even if we set up a few more hospitals, it is not enough," he said.

"Keep those with mild cases of COVID-19 at home for treatment," he added.

The health ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the home treatment plan.

The government has restricted travels between provinces and cities, banned large gatherings and imposed a nighttime curfew in the capital Phnom Penh for two weeks from April 1.

Cambodia has passed a law that prescribe long jail terms for serious violations of health measures.

It also requires people to scan Quick Response (QR) codes before entering establishments. The New York-based Human Rights Watch on Tuesday said such logging of personal information would help the government's surveillance practices, which it said were intrusive. 

(Reporting by Prak Chan Thul; Editing by Martin Petty)

-reuters-

Tourism takes a beating as visitors vanish from Asia's most visited sites

SIEM REAP, Cambodia - As dawn breaks the unmistakable tapered towers of Angkor Wat emerge from the gloom - but for once there are no tourists jostling on its steps to capture Cambodia's most famous sunrise.

Asia's most Instagrammable sites - temples, promenades, shopping streets, museums and mausoleums - are empty, victims of a virus keeping visitors at home.

The usual crowds have evaporated from Sensoji temple in Tokyo to Shanghai's Bund; abandoning the viewpoint at The Peak in Hong Kong and alleviating the pedestrian crush along Sydney Harbour.

Many of the now-vanished visitors are from China - a country whose travelers have completely reshaped the tourist economies of Asia over the last few years, yet where only around 10 percent of the population hold passports.

At the Angkor Wat complex, a 12th century marvel of Khmer architecture whose unique crenellations and reliefs lure millions each year, the high season has brought the lowest number of tourists on record.

Chinese-speaking Cambodian guide Hor Sophea has not taken any tours since late January. Several weeks on, money is getting tight.

"I've never seen so few tourists," said the 36-year, gesturing at the large moat inside the Angkor Wat complex, whose gangways normally bustle with selfie-taking hordes but are now empty.

"I am very worried... I don't know how much longer we can carry on like this."

The Angkor complex in Siem Reap province attracts the bulk of the kingdom's foreign tourists -- which hit a record 6.6 million in 2019, nearly half of whom were from China.

But the outbreak of the coronavirus has withered Chinese tourist arrivals by 90 percent.

Prime Minister Hun Sen has announced tax breaks for hotels and guesthouses in Siem Reap for four months to offset the losses.

But the discovery on Saturday of the first Cambodian with the infection - in Siem Reap - is likely to cement the stay-at-home mentality among many travelers.

The economic impact is also cascading across Asia.

In Bali, piers once bristling with arrivals from China are now decorated with moored boats, while in Tokyo the slump in mainland visitors - as well as South Koreans - is hammering restaurants in tourist areas.

At the Tsukiji fish market, some restaurants say their take is nearly 70 percent down.

"People stopped coming from China during the Lunar New Year... the streets and shops around here are near-empty," Hiroshi Oya, 61, a cook at a Japanese seafood restaurant told AFP.

"Then South Koreans stopped coming too. The tuna shop next to us decided to close temporarily to avoid running costs," he added.

But for those who are inured to the panic gripping the globe and choose to navigate travel restrictions and the morass of quarantine, a rare privilege of empty sites is their reward.

At the Angkor complex, even Ta Prohm -- the 'Tomb Raider Temple' famed for its embrace by giant tree roots and a Hollywood film franchise -- has only a smattering of visitors each day.

"We're very very lucky. Covid-19 has probably done us a favor," Australian tourist Andres Medenis, who came for sunrise at Angkor Wat, told AFP.

"But the economy is going to be really affected by that... so I feel sorry for the local people." 

source: news.abs-cbn.com

American from Cambodia cruise ship tests positive for COVID-19

KUALA LUMPUR/SIHANOUKVILLE, Cambodia - An 83-year-old American passenger from a cruise ship that docked in Cambodia after being shunned by other countries has tested positive for the new coronavirus after being tested in Malaysia, health authorities said on Saturday.

The woman was the first passenger from the MS Westerdam, operated by Carnival Corp unit Holland America Inc, to test positive for the virus.

The ship docked in the Cambodian port of Sihanoukville on Thursday carrying 1,455 passengers and 802 crew. It had spent two weeks at sea after being turned away by Japan, Taiwan, Guam, the Philippines and Thailand.

The passengers were tested regularly on board and Cambodia also tested 20 once it docked. None was found to have the new coronavirus that has killed more than 1,500 people, the vast majority in China.

The American woman flew to Malaysia on Friday from Cambodia along with 144 others from the ship, the Malaysian health ministry said in a statement, adding that she was in stable condition.

The woman's husband had shown symptoms but tested negative, it said. The couple were the only ones of the 145 to show symptoms, the ministry said.

A spokesman for Holland America declined to comment.

Fewer than 300 people were still on board the Westerdam, according to a company official, who declined to be identified as he was not authorized to speak to the media.

Company officials have said passengers had been routed through Phnom Penh and Kuala Lumpur to fly back to their home countries, but they have not said that all passengers had taken that route.

Or Vandine, Secretary of State at Cambodia's Health Ministry, declined to comment.

U.S. President Donald Trump has thanked Cambodia for taking in the ship in a rare message to a country that is one of China's closest allies and has often been at odds with Washington.

Cruise ships around Asia face widespread fears they may be spreading the virus. The biggest cluster outside China has been on the Diamond Princess, quarantined off Japan's Yokohama. Out of about 3,700 passengers and crew on board, 285 people have tested positive and have been sent to hospital.

Vietnam turned back two ships on Friday.

The American woman's case brings the total number of confirmed coronavirus cases in Malaysia to 22.

An 80-year-old Chinese tourist infected with the coronavirus has died in France, the first fatality in Europe and the fourth outside mainland China.

Most of the deaths so far have been in the central Chinese province of Hubei, where the virus is believed to have originated at a wildlife market.

source: news.abs-cbn.com

Cambodia reports 1st case of new coronavirus infection

Cambodia on Monday reported its first confirmed case of the deadly new coronavirus that has been rapidly spreading from the central Chinese city of Wuhan.

Health Minister Mam Bunheng told a press conference that the virus was detected by the Pasteur Institute in a 60-year-old Chinese man who arrived from Wuhan on last Thursday.

The minister said three family members who accompanied him tested negative for the virus.

Besides Cambodia and mainland China, confirmed cases of infection have been recorded in Australia, Canada, France, Hong Kong, Macau, Malaysia, Japan, Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan, Thailand, the United States and Vietnam.

source: news.abs-cbn.com

Death toll rises to 24 in Cambodia building collapse, some still trapped

PHNOM PENH -- At least 24 people were killed and 23 injured after a building in Cambodia collapsed, trapping workers under rubble, officials said on Sunday.

The seven-story concrete building collapsed on Friday in the coastal town of Kep, about 160 km southwest of the capital Phnom Penh.

It came a year after another construction site collapsed, killing 28 people in Preah Sihanouk province.

"Twenty-four people have died so far," Kep governor Ken Satha told Reuters. "Three of the bodies are not yet at hospital, they have not been pulled out yet."

An unknown number of workers remained trapped, Satha said, adding that authorities had detained a Cambodian couple, the owners of the building, for questioning.

Prime Minister Hun Sen said on Saturday that rescuers were still struggling to reach those missing in the rubble.

Cambodia is undergoing a construction boom to serve growing crowds of Chinese tourists and investors.

source: news.abs-cbn.com

4 killed in Cambodia building collapse

KEP, Cambodia—Four people were killed and more than a dozen injured when a 7-storey building under construction collapsed in southern Cambodia on Friday trapping workers under the rubble, an official told AFP, as the search for more victims went into the night.

The building in coastal Kep province was meant to be a hotel but crumpled at around 4:30 p.m., with photos showing concrete floors sandwiched together as heavy machinery moved in to help clear the wreckage.

Cambodian leader Hun Sen said in a Facebook post he was traveling to the site and he arrived late Friday evening.

Sixteen people were injured in addition to the 4 who died, Ros Udong, spokesman for the Kep provincial administration, told AFP by phone.

Deadly accidents plague the kingdom's poorly regulated building sector even as the country has enjoyed a construction boom.

In June, nearly 30 people died after the collapse of a building under construction in Sihanoukville, a beach town undergoing a Chinese investment bonanza.

Last month at least 3 workers died and more than a dozen others were seriously injured after an under-construction dining hall at a temple collapsed in the tourist town of Siem Reap.

There are an estimated 200,000 construction workers in Cambodia, most unskilled, reliant on day wages and not protected by union rules, according to the International Labor Organization.

source: news.abs-cbn.com

Nintendo supplier to shift game console production from China to Cambodia

TOKYO - Japanese electronic device maker MinebeaMitsumi Inc. will shift part of its video game console production operation to Cambodia from China, a company spokesman told NNA on Tuesday, with the outcome of the United States-China trade row remaining uncertain.

The move by MinebeaMitsumi, a supplier to video game giant Nintendo Co., comes after the United States canceled last week its planned punitive tariffs on video game consoles, among other products, shipped from China.

MinebeaMitsumi will introduce upgrades to its plant located in a special economic zone in the Cambodian capital of Phnom Penh, planning to have the assembly of video game consoles for export at full capacity from 2020.

Production has partially started already, the spokesman said, while declining to disclose the amount of investment or planned output capacity.

He said they plan to beef up production in Cambodia overall, where they currently make products such as ball bearings and LED backlights under its local arm, Minebea (Cambodia) Co., and expand the number of workers to 20,000 from 7,000 in the next few years.

Nintendo, which made up 16.4 percent of MinebeaMitsumi's sales in the fiscal year through March 2019, revealed in July its plan to shift part of its Switch console production from China to Vietnam.

It said the decision to move production of the popular video game console was made to avoid future uncertainty, after opposing the U.S. tariffs in a joint statement released in June. (NNA/Kyodo)

source: news.abs-cbn.com

Cambodia feared lagging behind predators in cybersex trafficking crackdown

PHNOM PENH - US and Australian crime fighters are preparing Cambodia for a spike in online child sex abuse cases but local officials fear that predators are a step ahead of police due to narrow laws.

The spread of cheap, high-speed internet and the rise in mobile phone ownership is fueling cybersex trafficking across Southeast Asia - a form of modern-day slavery where children are abused and raped over livestreams for paying clients worldwide.

Agents from the US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and Australian Federal Police (AFP) have in recent months started training Cambodian police to investigate the crime amid concerns that it is becoming more prevalent in the country.

Yet undercover investigations in sexual abuse cases are not permitted under Cambodian law, hindering the authorities' ability to tackle the trend, said Khuon Sokpiseth, deputy director of the interior ministry's cybercrime department.

"We need this capacity to infiltrate networks and we need new cybercrime laws for the department to properly carry out its mission," Sokpiseth told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.

A more comprehensive cybercrime law has been in the pipeline for at least two years, he said, without giving further details.

The interior ministry and the justice ministry both declined to discuss the proposed legislation.

The Philippines is considered to be the epicenter of cybersex trafficking - with its high level of English, rampant poverty and cheap Internet access - yet campaigners say the crime is spreading across the region from Vietnam to Cambodia.

At least three-quarters of Cambodians had internet access as of the start of this year, up from 45% of the population in 2017, according to We Are Social, a social media marketing firm.

"Countering the online sexual exploitation of children is a priority ... for Cambodia," said a spokesman for the AFP, which ran a workshop with local law enforcement agencies in July.

"Of particular concern is the rise in instances and rates of child exploitation overseas with Australians involved."

The United States, Britain and Australia are the main consumers of child sex abuse streamed over webcam, he added.

The FBI confirmed it had been involved in a recent workshop on the issue with Cambodian police, but did not comment further.

"FOREVER RUNNING BEHIND"

In the Philippines, the AFP is part of a joint taskforce launched earlier this year to tackle online child sex abuse alongside Britain's National Crime Agency, local police and the International Justice Mission, an anti-trafficking charity.

The head of the taskforce, police general William Macavinta, told the Thomson Reuters Foundation that more than 90% of successful investigations relied on undercover investigations.

In Cambodia, charity Action Pour Le Enfants (APLE), which works with local police and the FBI, is also calling for a new cybercrime law to be adopted to prevent the crime from growing.

The government last month said the number of trafficking victims rescued in Cambodia had more than doubled in the first half of the year, compared to 2018, with 101 children freed.

Yet the head of APLE, Samleang Seila, said child trafficking had moved off the streets and into "underground environments" in recent years, and that there were now thousands of reports of illicit imagery of children being shared online each month.

Investigators in Cambodia must be allowed to go undercover "to infiltrate networks and dig out criminals", Seila added.

"If we are only relying on victim complaints and reports from the community, I think we will forever be running behind."

More than 260,000 of Cambodia's 16 million people are estimated to be trapped in slavery, according to the Global Slavery Index by the Australia-based Walk Free Foundation. 

source: news.abs-cbn.com

Cambodia to ban online gambling, cites threat to social order

PHNOM PENH - Cambodia said on Sunday it was banning online gambling, which helped propel a wave of Chinese investment in casinos in the country, saying that the industry had been used by foreign criminals to extort money.

The southern coastal city of Sihanoukville has emerged as a particular center for gambling and many of the dozens of Chinese-run casinos that have sprung up there have online gambling operations.

"The Royal Government of Cambodia will stop the issuance of online gambling policy and licenses, both within and outside of the Kingdom of Cambodia, from the date of signing this directive," said a directive signed by Prime Minister Hun Sen.

"Some foreign criminals have taken refuge in the form of this gambling to cheat and extort money from victims, domestic and abroad, which affect the security, public order and social order," the directive said.

China is Cambodia's close ally, its biggest donor and investor . It has also been trying to crack down on cross-border gambling, criticizing operations in the Philippines that are similar to those in Cambodia.

source: news.abs-cbn.com

Cambodia charges Chinese nationals over deadly building collapse

PHNOM PENH- A Cambodian court charged 7 people on Tuesday, including 5 Chinese nationals, with involuntary manslaughter and conspiracy after 28 people died in a collapsed building on the weekend.

Some 26 people were injured after the Chinese-owned building collapsed on Saturday in the coastal town of Sihanoukville, prompting Prime Minister Hun Sen to fire a top disaster management official.

Investigators are trying to determine what caused the 7-story steel and concrete structure to crumble without warning before dawn, trapping construction workers who were sleeping on the site. The last 2 survivors were found on Monday.

The port and resort town has seen a rush of Chinese investment in recent years, especially in the casino, property and tourism sectors, and questions have been raised about construction standards.

Prosecutors charged 2 Chinese nationals, the building owner Chen Kun and construction supervisor Deng Xing Gui, with involuntary manslaughter, causing unintentional injuries and damage, according to the Preah Sihanouk Provincial Court.

Three other Chinese nationals, a Vietnamese and a Cambodian were charged with conspiracy related to the charges, the court documents showed.

The men were not available for comment on Tuesday.

Hun Sen fired a top disaster management official on Monday for failing to take responsibility for the disaster and accepted the resignation of Yun Min, the governor of Preah Sihanouk province.

High-level resignations over wrongdoing are rare in Cambodia.

The accident has sparked a public debate about the nature of Chinese businesses in Cambodia, which critics say are allowed to operate without enough scrutiny.

Sihanoukville is home to Cambodia's largest port and a Chinese Special Economic Zone linked to Beijing's Belt and Road initiative.

source: news.abs-cbn.com

Cambodian doctor guilty of infecting patients with HIV

PHNOM PENH, Cambodia - An unlicensed Cambodian doctor was sentenced to 25 years in prison Thursday after he was found guilty of infecting more than 200 people with HIV, including some who later died.

The case has shone a spotlight on the chronically underfunded healthcare system in the impoverished nation where many have to rely on self-taught or unlicensed medics to receive treatment.

Yem Chroeum, 55, was facing the prospect of life in prison but his murder charge was reduced by the court to a lesser manslaughter offence, his defence lawyer said.

"My client still insists he is innocent," lawyer Em Sovann told AFP by telephone after the verdict was announced.

"I will represent him if he wants to appeal this conviction," he added.

The rural doctor was convicted of infecting locals in the remote village of Roka in western Battambang province by reusing dirty needles.

For millions of Cambodians -- especially the poor and those in isolated regions -- unlicensed doctors are the only realistic healthcare option for everyday ailments.

World Bank figures say Cambodia, one of Asia's poorest nations, has just 0.2 doctors for every 100,000 people, on a par with Afghanistan.

Similarly impoverished Myanmar has 0.4 per 100,000, while France boasts 3.2 per 100,000.

Much of Cambodia's shortfall is made up by unlicensed practitioners, many of whom are self taught.

But the HIV infections in Roka shocked the country and saw the government vow to crack down on unlicensed healthcare providers.

Some of those who were infected testified at the trial.

Loeum Lorn, 52, said he and four of his family members had contracted HIV.

"We are his (the doctor's) victims but it was only late on that we discovered we were infected," he told reporters last month outside the trial.

He added that around 10 villagers who were infected, mostly elderly, had since died.

During the trial, prosecutors accused the doctor of hiding the facts and changing his story.

source: www.abs-cbnnews.com

Google launches digital tour of Cambodia's Angkor Wat

ANGKOR WAT -- Cambodia's Angkor Wat has been digitally mapped for the first time, allowing people to visit the World Heritage Site from the comfort of their armchair using Google Street View.

The project is part of a growing trend aimed at Internet users who might otherwise never have the chance to visit the cultural and architectural wonders of the world.

Google took more than a million photos of Angkor -- the result is 90,000 360-degree views of more than 100 temples.

Street View allows web users to zoom in on an area, and then explore.

"Recently we've done the Taj Mahal, the Grand Canyon, Mount Fiji," said Manik Gupta, project manager at Google Maps.

"But the scale of Angkor Wat is what makes this unprecedented," he told AFP at the project's launch on Thursday.

"It is such an iconic place, people say it is the eighth wonder of the world, and it gives you this incredible sense -- look at every single small nook and cranny, you'll find art work."

The Angkor Archaeological Park contains the remains of the different capitals of the Khmer Empire, dating from the 9th to the 15th century.

Cars, trains and trekkers

To create the project Google used a new innovation called "Trekker."

Fifteen digital cameras are attached by a long pole to a backpack, and each one records a 75 million mega pixel photo every two and a half seconds.

By walking around the Angkor Wat temple complex, they are able to photograph areas that Google's Street View cars cannot reach.

"Street View launched in 2007, and since then we've amassed a huge amount of experience. We've even used snow mobiles and trains, and Trekker is the latest tool," Gupta said.

Google Maps was launched in 2005, followed by Street View two years later and more recently Google Art, which provides tours of major galleries and museums.

For the latest project, five local men were tasked with trekking around the temples for up to eight hours a day, to record what many people say is the eighth wonder of the world.

A huge amount of Cambodia's heritage was destroyed during the Khmer Rouge regime in the late 1970s.

"If there is a country where this is needed the most, it is Cambodia," said Amit Sood, Google's director of cultural heritage, which is trying to bring as many international cultural artifacts online as possible.

"There is so much about Cambodia that is not known in the west, because it was erased, but Cambodia has a very rich cultural heritage."

Digitized museums booming

About 4.2 million tourists visited Cambodia last year, a 17 percent increase on 2012, the majority of whom visited the temple complex.

Sood believes that by having Angkor Wat online for people to enjoy, it will encourage more people to come to see the real thing, like with art galleries.

"All digitized museums are experiencing unprecedented growth. Physical attendance is booming," Sood told AFP. "There definitely isn't a negative effect."

But although Google offers a visual digital experience, allowing web users to spot things that would be easily missed by the naked eye, some visitors say that it could ruin the moment you see something for the first time.

"I wouldn't go see it on Google Street View before I went there," 21 year old Dutch backpacker Liesbeth Gerritsen told AFP in the shade of one of the long carved corridors at Angkor Wat.

"For me it is cooler to (come) and see it, and then look it up afterwards."

And travel experts believe nothing can truly replace experiencing something on your own.

"I can't imagine that seeing pictures online or a 360 view as presented by Google Maps would be a real substitute for actually going there," said Tom Sturrock, a Bangkok-based travel editor and writer.

"The online experience is never going to be an adequate replacement for actually being there when the sun comes up at Angkor Wat."

source: www.abs-cbnnews.com

Cambodia, WHO closer to identifying killer disease as Philippines screens travelers

PHNOM PENH - Health professionals from Cambodia and the World Health Organization are closer to identifying the mysterious disease that has killed at least 52 children, but the Philippines is not letting its guard down as it ordered the screening of all inbound travelers.

The latest laboratory results showed that Enterovirus Type 71 (EV-71) was found among children who had died from undiagnosed syndrome since April, according to a joint statement of Cambodia's Health Ministry and the WHO released Sunday midnight.EV-71,

"Based on the latest laboratory results, a significant proportion of the patients' samples tested positive for Enterovirus 71," said the statement.

According to the joint statement, a final review of all tested hospitalized cases is being done to detect the undiagnosed syndrome.

Of the 59 children affected by the syndrome 52 have died, it said.

Sixty-four young children out of 66 admitted to the largest children's hospitals in Cambodia since the end of April were killed by encephalitis.

Philippe Buchy, head of Virology Unit at the Institut Pasteur in Cambodia, wrote in an email on Sunday that 15 out of 24 patients with the encephalitis/pulmonary disease were tested positive for EV-71.

"These results now give a good explanation to this outbreak. We will get more results hopefully by next Tuesday or Wednesday," he wrote.

Cambodia's Minister of Health Mam Bun Heng said in the joint statement that further investigation is ongoing. "We hope to be able to conclude our investigation in the coming days," it said.

The EV-71 causes hand foot and mouth disease (HFMD), which results in severe complications and deaths among some patients, said the statement.

Strict screening of inbound travelers

In Manila, the Philippines has started screening inbound travelers in all its international airports.

Health Secretary Enrique Ona has instructed the Bureau of Quarantine to carry out routine screening procedures that can detect if an inbound traveler has fever. Fever, among other symptoms, was observed in the patients.

Despite an outbreak in a neighboring country, Ona said there is no travel restriction to and from Cambodia as the DOH is currently monitoring the situation through its National Epidemiology Center and the WHO office in Manila.

Young patients

Those affected by the disease range from 3 months to 11 years with majority of the patients being under 3 years old, said Cambodia’s health professionals and WHO in Phnom Penh.

The statement, however, added that laboratory samples were not available in majority of the cases as the patients have died before samples could be taken.

But based on those samples already taken, most of the cases tested positive for Enterovirus 71 (EV71) which causes hand foot and mouth disease (HFMD) known to cause severe complications among some patients.

Some of the cases also tested positive for dengue but were negative for H5N1 and other influenza viruses such as severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) that plagued some Asian countries in 2003.

HFMD is a common disease among infants and children. Its symptoms include fever, painful sores in the mouth and a rash with blisters on hands, feet and buttocks. It is commonly caused by coxsackievirus A16, which usually results in mild self-limiting disease with a few complications. However, HFMD is also caused by Enteroviruses (EV71), which is known to result to severe complications including death.

HFMD normally affects children under 10 years old with younger children having the worse symptoms. The virus is contagious and spreads by direct contact through nose discharge, saliva, fluid from blisters, or stool from infected persons.

The Philippines has maintained an effective emergency response and surveillance system despite a global epidemic brought by SARS in 2003 and the H1N1 virus in 2009 that resulted to minimal damage in public health and resources.

source: interaksyon.com

Three Pinoy high school students to compete in ASEAN quiz

Three Filipino high school students will represent the Philippines in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Quiz Regional Competition in Cambodia, the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) said on Friday.

In a statement, the DFA said the three participants -- from Luzon, Visayas, and Mindanao -- topped the national leg of the quiz contest on January 25 at the People’s Television Network (PTV-4) in Quezon City.

Franchesca Anne Inacay, a third year high school student at St. Albert the Great School of Dagupan City (Ilocos Region), emerged as the first prize winner of the competition.

Following her were Krystianne Paul de Pedro of Koronadal National Comprehensive High School (South Cotabato) and Ma. Angela Krizelle Rubin of San Joaquin National High School (Calbayog City, Samar).

The DFA said the three winners will compete in the regional leg this August, together with “representatives from the nine other ASEAN Member States.”

The ASEAN Cultural Fund will shoulder the team’s round-trip airfare and board and lodging, the DFA added. - RJMD, VVP, GMA News

source:gmanetwork.com