These are the top stories making the front pages of major newspapers from across Southeast Asia today.
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Employers encouraged to allow flexible work hours, to take load off public transport
Flexible hours for those who need to be in the office should be considered as public transport passenger volume climbs with the easing of restrictions at workplaces. Transport minister Ong Ye Kung is encouraging employers to allow staff who are now working from home to start their day in the morning at home. They can leave for the office after peak hours, to arrive at 10am and later. In a Facebook post on Tuesday (Oct 6), Mr Ong said the number of people using public transport dropped drastically during the circuit breaker in April. "Today, passenger volume is about 50 to 60 per cent compared to the pre-Covid 19 levels, for both peak and off-peak hours," he added. However, he said there is no reason to be worried. "The trains are much less crowded than before. And we can do our part by keeping our masks on, and avoid talking on public transport." He noted that more employers will be responding to the Manpower Ministry's latest guidelines to have more workers return to the workplace. Last month, the Government announced that more people will be allowed to return to the office from Sept 28. – The Straits Times
383 Kemas tabika, taska closed over Covid fears
A total of 383 Community Development Department (Kemas) preschools (tabika) and nurseries (taska) have been closed to date, said its director-general Datuk Mohamad Yasid Bidin. He said the tabika and taska are in Kedah, Sabah and Terengganu, which have been designated 'red zones' due to a sudden hike in Covid-19 cases in the states. "In Kedah, 276 tabika are closed, Sabah (96) and Terengganu (2), while another nine are taska in Sabah," he told reporters after launching the Federal Territories Kemas Potential Day closing ceremony, held at the Kemas Community Activities Centre in Kg Sri Batu here, today. In his speech, Mohamad Yasid said Kemas Potential Day, celebrated online this year, enjoyed the participation of 316 tabika in the federal territories of Kuala Lumpur, Putrajaya and Labuan. Among the talent shows held were hand puppetry, story-telling, Quran hafazan (recitation by memory) and public speaking. – New Straits Times
'Reopen now or face collapse'
Pailin Chuchottaworn, head of a panel steering the economic recovery, on Monday urged the government to reopen the country in order to prevent it from collapsing. He said that despite the lockdown having been gradually eased six times, the country's output would not improve unless the country reopens, albeit with precautionary measures. This year's annual GDP is predicted to fall to minus 8-10%, equating to the country losing 1.5-1.7 trillion baht in a single year, Mr Pailin warned. He said that although the government had spent some time preparing to reopen the country to foreign tourists under the Special Tourist Visa (STV) scheme, Thailand is effectively closed. If Thailand could not find a way to reopen its borders for the upcoming high season in the fourth and final quarter of this year, the STV scheme may have to be scrapped, he said. "Currently, tourism is an important priority," Mr Pailin stressed. "If the country does not reopen, it will be hard for GDP to grow because the country's economy depends mainly on the tourism industry and exports." He went on to say that the Centre for Covid-19 Situation Administration (CCSA) had done well in controlling the spread of the Covid-19 pandemic but maintaining zero cases of local transmissions by keeping the country closed had come at the expense of the economy. – Bangkok Post
Indonesia passes jobs bill as recession looms
The government and the House of Representatives passed on Monday the controversial omnibus bill on job creation into law, which is expected to bring a radical change in the country’s labour system and natural resources management. The final draft of the bill, a copy of which was obtained by The Jakarta Post, is 905 pages long and amends 79 prevailing laws, including the Labor Law, the Spatial Planning Law and Environmental Management Law. The Job Creation Law, which is one of President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo’s key priorities in his second and final term, is expected to improve bureaucratic efficiency and cut red tape, particularly in regard to business permits and investment. The government’s expectation has pushed the law to make significant adjustments to labour rules and business licensing processes, all of which have been criticized, as they are considered to infringe on labour rights and put the environment at risk. Until the moment of its passage, the law met mounting resistance from labour unions and environmentalists as well as rejection from House factions of the Democratic Party and the Prosperous Justice Party (PKS). In a plenary session on Monday, led by Deputy House Speaker Azis Syamsuddin of the Golkar Party, House Legislation Body (Baleg) chairman Supratman Andi Agtas said the deliberation of the bill had taken place from April 20 to Oct. 3, adding that lawmakers and the government had been holding meetings, even on weekends, to expedite the deliberation. "The deliberation was careful enough until the end. All factions paid attention to workers' rights in the decision-making process,” the Gerindra Party politician said. – The Jakarta Post
PhilHealth inquiry may catch more ‘big fish’
More “big fish” may be included in the next batch of cases that a task force formed by President Duterte will file in connection with the multibillion-peso corruption scandal in Philippine Health Insurance Corp. (PhilHealth), Justice Secretary Menardo Guevarra told the Senate on Monday. Guevarra made the remarks a day after Sen. Panfilo Lacson claimed that the task force, led by the Department of Justice (DOJ), had already obtained “enough evidence” to pursue criminal and administrative charges against Health Secretary Francisco Duque III. “We have just begun, and we’re still uncovering and gathering more evidence. So who knows if in the future some other big fish may be caught,” Guevarra said at the deliberations in the Senate of the DOJ’s budget request of P22.6 billion for 2021. Duque, who serves as chair of the state health insurer, was left out as respondent in the case that the National Bureau of Investigation brought in the Office of the Ombudsman last week. Resigned PhilHealth senior vice president Rodolfo del Rosario Jr., who had admitted that the release of P14.9 billion in interim reimbursement mechanism (IRM) funds to hospitals and other health-care facilities was illegal, was also excluded from the complaint. “We will continue what we have started. Many other names will come out in the next few days,” Guevarra said, adding that the NBI would file a supplemental complaint with the graft buster within the week. – INQUIRER.net
Transport ministry proposes tolls on State-funded expressways
If the proposal is approved, three State-invested expressways (Mai Sơn-National Highway 45, Vĩnh Hảo-Phan Thiết, Phan Thiết-Dầu Giây belonged to North-South Expressway) which started construction on September 30 would collect tolls of VNĐ1,500-2,000 (US$0.06-0.08) per kilometre once they go into operation in 2023, said Deputy Minister of Transport Nguyễn Ngọc Đông. The ministries are studying tolls on six North-South expressways with State budget investment, and will submit a plan to the Government and the National Assembly Standing Committee for approval. Deputy Minister of Transport Nguyễn Ngọc Đông said tolls on State-funded expressways had caused public controversies in many countries. In the UK, drivers are not charged, but in Japan tolls are collected on all State-owned expressways. The Road Traffic Law of Việt Nam states that drivers do not have to pay tolls on State-funded expressways. They just need to pay road maintenance fees at automobile register centres. However, the limited State budget meant there was only investment available for national highways, and extra funding was needed to invest in high-quality expressways. Expressway tolls would be used to build other roads, the deputy minister said. Expressways were safe and convenient so drivers should pay fees. Otherwise they could use free roads like National Highway 1 and Hồ Chí Minh Road, he said. The Việt Nam Road Administration has proposed collecting ‘lifelong’ expressway tolls to build a budget to develop a synchronised nationwide transport network. It means expressways constructed under the Build-Operate-Transfer model, after being transferred to the State, would continue to collect tolls which would be used for road management, maintenance and new road construction. Some State-funded expressways like HCM City-Trung Lương and Hà Nội-Thái Nguyên are already collecting tolls but still lack funding for maintenance work, resulting in downgraded roads. – Viet Nam News
All three of Cambodia’s airports reel under the dire impacts of COVID-19 pandemic
The daily average inbound and outbound flights for Cambodia’s 3 international airports combined, number a mere 17 with the vast majority of them landing or taking off from Phnom Penh International Airport in September, according to Khek Norinda, Director of Communication and PR for Cambodia Airports. He added that Siem Reap International Airport has nearly no flights and there are very few inbound and outbound aircraft at Sihanouk International Airport. These small numbers account for a 94 percent drop in arrivals and departures compared to September 2019, Norinda said. “Mostly, the flights are to and from Chinese cities, Seoul, Taipei, and reduced frequency of recent resumptions of scheduled flights to and from Singapore and Ho Chi Minh city,” he added. “With passenger traffic free falling 77 percent between January to September 2020, it is a grim picture for all the international airports and the situation is grimmer than what we had expected as traffic continues to remain extremely low this year,” he added. An overall reduction of air passengers (both international and domestic) ranging from 57 percent to 60 percent as of September 16, 2020, compared to 2019 has been recorded, according to the International Civil Aviation Organization, the specialised agency of the United Nations. For other airports around the globe, the estimated loss is approximately 60 percent of passenger traffic and 61 percent or over $104.5 billion in airport revenues in 2020. However, for the airlines, a 54.7 percent decline has been recorded for revenue per passenger kilometre in 2020 because of the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, according to the ICAO. – Khmer Times