These are the top stories making the front pages of major newspapers from across Southeast Asia today.
Get up to speed with what’s happening in the fastest growing region in the world.
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13 people arrested over OCBC phishing scams; 7 have been charged
Thirteen people aged between 19 and 22 have been arrested for their suspected involvement in the recent spate of scams targeting OCBC Bank customers.
The police said in a statement on Sunday (Feb 20) that the 13 comprise nine men and four women.
In all, 790 customers lost $13.7 million to the phishing scams, which took place in December and last month.
The victims received unsolicited SMSes claiming that there were issues with their banking accounts, asking them to click on a link to resolve the issue.
They were then redirected to a fake website that resembled OCBC’s and were asked to key in their ibanking account login details.
It was only after they received notifications informing them of unauthorised transactions charged to their bank accounts that victims discovered they had been scammed.
The police said they had been closely monitoring reports of the phishing scams since last December.
“Through thorough investigations and extensive probes, the identities of 13 persons suspected to be involved in the OCBC Bank phishing scams were established,” they added.
Police officers from the Criminal Investigation Department arrested the 13 in an island wide operation on Feb 16 and 17.
An array of mobile devices, bank cards, SIM cards, cash amounting $2,760 and two Rolex watches, worth a total of $35,600, were seized. – Straits Times
'Be on standby for online classes'
The Education Ministry and schools should be on standby to return to hosting virtual lessons if Covid-19 cases continue their uptrend.
Epidemiologist Dr Malina Osman said given that the daily cases logged had been similar over the past few days, tomorrow's numbers would be the indicator on whether Malaysia should pursue the option.
"The ministry and schools, in the meantime, should formulate how they want to go about doing this.
"They should assess whether it should be fully virtual or hybrid with very limited physical capacity for rural areas or schools where children do not have the means to purchase gadgets or instal Wi-Fi. "At this point, schools should also be empowered to make their own decisions on this without intervention from the authorities," Dr Malina said if a closure was instituted based on the rising number of cases, it should be for kindergartens, primary and secondary schools.
Examination candidates, however, should be allowed to continue taking their papers, she added.
"If cases continue to rise tomorrow, which is increasingly likely, we can reopen physical lessons or full physical lessons upon reaching 70 per cent or 80 per cent coverage for boosters and vaccination for children aged 5 to 11."
Dr Malina said that while going back to virtual learning might be a bitter pill to swallow, it was crucial to understand that children, and to a lesser degree adolescents, were now the main transmitters of the disease due to their exposure to each other in schools. – New Straits Times
Renewed push to sort, recycle waste
Despite its reputation of being one of the world's top tourist destinations, litter can literally be seen all over Bangkok.
According to the Department of Environment and Bangkok Metropolitan Administration (BMA) figures, the capital produces more than 8,000 tonnes of municipal waste every day.
Large quantities of the refuse are plastics and infectious medical waste that pose challenges to Bangkok's waste management infrastructure, with environmental experts suggesting the BMA must deal with the root causes of the problem.
Sujitra Vassanadumrongdee, a researcher from the Environmental Research Institute at Chulalongkorn University, believes the BMA should prioritise reducing waste at the source rather than just dealing with the aftermath.
Ms Sujitra said the BMA must pay for more equipment and a management system which would help people sort and separate waste before it is collected by local authorities.
"The city spends 7 billion baht each year on rubbish transfer and disposal, but its income from rubbish collection and recycling is only about 10-50 million baht per year," she said.
"Nevertheless, the growing amount of rubbish in Bangkok indicates the city's failure to solve the issue, while any recent decline is mostly attributable to the Covid-19 situation.
"If we solve the problem at its root, we could save money and even turn a profit from waste recycling," said Ms Sujitra.
Yet waste management should not be the sole domain of the BMA, Ms Sujitra said. Cooperation from the private sector and academics are also needed to come up with a more holistic solution.
The 50 district offices across the city must be empowered to deal with the issue, not just the BMA's Environment Department, although there seems to be a lack of budget for new initiatives, she said. "The governor elected in the upcoming Bangkok gubernatorial election must consider waste separation as a key goal." – Bangkok Post
Magnitude 5.7, 5.2 quakes jolt DavOcc
Earthquakes with magnitudes 5.7 and 5.2 jolted Davao Occidental early Monday, the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology (Phivolcs) reported.
Aftershocks are likely from the magnitude 5.7 quake that struck at 2:29 a.m., 109 kilometres southeast of the municipality of Jose Abad Santos.
This tectonic quake was 120 kilometres deep.
Intensity III was felt in Tupi, South Cotabato, while Intensity II in General Santos City and Davao City.
Phivolcs recorded the following instrumental intensities:
Intensity III- General Santos City;
Intensity I - Davao City; Kidapawan City.
Reported intensity is the traditional way of knowing the intensity based on reports by people who felt the earthquake, while instrumental intensity is measured using intensity meter that measures ground acceleration.
Meanwhile, the magnitude 5.2 earthquake's epicentre was 115 kilometres. southeast of Jose Abad Santos.
It struck at 5:13 a.m. and had a depth of 69 kilometres.
Instrumental intensity II was recorded in General Santos City. Aftershocks are unlikely.
Phivolcs is not expecting damages from both earthquakes, as damage starts at Intensity VI. – Philippine News Agency
Viet Nam ready to welcome back tourists
Almost two years on from the border being shut, Viet Nam's tourism sector is ready to welcome back foreign tourists from next month.
In an effort to accelerate economic recovery and revive the tourism sector, the Vietnamese Government last week decided to fully reopen its borders to foreign tourists from March 15, about three months earlier than previously planned.
On Monday, domestic airlines were allowed to resume regular international flights. Restrictions on flight frequency, quarantine and testing requirements were abolished or loosened. Tourists now only need to have a certificate showing a negative COVID-19 test result (test taken within 24 hours prior to arrival in case of rapid test, or 72 hours in case of RT-PCR test).
This policy is in line with other Southeast Asian countries that are planning to fully reopen their borders.
According to Dinh Viet Thang, general director of the Civil Aviation Authority of Viet Nam, now is a good time to open as it not only facilitates airlines to restore and re-use their existing capacity, but also presents them an opportunity to access new markets at a time when not all international airlines have resumed their full services.
“If we are slow at this stage, waiting a few more months for when airlines simultaneously restore their routes, it will be very difficult for latecomers,” Thang said.
Last week, Thai tourism businesses called on the government to declare COVID-19 an endemic disease and fully reopen the country to international tourists by lifting all restrictions from next month on fears that if not doing so, the country may lose their ability to compete with other nations in the region.
On February 1, the Thai government resumed their Test & Go programme, allowing foreign tourists to visit the country without quarantine as long as they take a negative COVID test on the first and fifth day of their trip.
On February 10, the Philippines opened their borders to vaccinated tourists and business travellers, without a quarantine requirement.
Other nations such as Malaysia, Singapore and Japan are also considering resuming border reopening after a pause due to the Omicron outbreak. – Vietnam News
Cambodia warns of 4-digit numbers of daily COVID-19 infections
A Cambodia’s health spokesperson has warned of four-figure numbers of daily COVID-19 cases, urging people to adhere to health protocols. The southeast Asian nation logged 736 new COVID-19 cases on Sunday, six of which were imported and all were confirmed to be the Omicron variant of COVID-19, the health ministry said, adding that two new fatalities were registered.
Since the pandemic began in January 2020, the kingdom had recorded a total of 126,489 COVID-19 cases with 120,462 recoveries and 3,017 deaths.
Health ministry’s secretary of state and spokeswoman Or Vandine said the Omicron variant has been actively circulating in the country, appealing to members of the public to strictly follow a guideline on three dos and three don’ts and to go for vaccines or booster shots when their turns come.
“The number of daily infections has resurged from a single digit (in mid-December 2021) to two digits and now reached triple digits, so if we all still do not comply with health measures properly, it will hit four digits soon,” she told local media.
The three dos include wearing a face mask, washing hands regularly, and maintaining a physical distance of 1.5 meters, she said, adding that the three don’ts are avoiding confined and enclosed spaces, avoiding crowded spaces, and avoiding touching each other.
The spokeswoman said the vaccine is essential to protect people’s lives, reducing infections, severe illness and death. – Khmer Times
ICJ hearing is a chance to show Myanmar’s failed coup leaders that their days are numbered
At a week-long public hearing set to begin at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in the Hague on Monday, the country’s illegal junta will attempt to block the case brought against it by The Gambia for breaching the Genocide Convention during the so-called “clearance operations” in 2017 that drove 750,000 Rohingya into Bangladesh.
The regime’s representatives at the hearing are expected to raise procedural objections to prevent the court moving to the substantive stage of the case, at which point the Rohingya people might expect some form of long-delayed justice.
As if to deliberately mock the international justice system, coup leader Min Aung Hlaing has nominated two individuals accused of committing serious human rights violations and subverting the rule of law – Win Shein, the regime’s minister for planning, finance and industry, and Thida oo, its attorney general – to his ICJ team.
Win Shein has been facing EU and US sanctions since last year, while the US, UK and Canada added Thida Oo to their sanctions lists on the anniversary of last year’s February 1 coup for fabricating charges against State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi in an attempt to bar her and other democratic leaders from politics.
Even the junta’s presence at the “principle judicial organ of the UN” is an affront to international law, as it is in violation of a UN General Assembly’s decision to reject the credentials of the military regime and leave the National Unity Government’s (NUG) pick for Myanmar’s permanent representative to the world body, Kyaw Moe Tun, in his seat. This resolution was unanimously endorsed last December by all 193 members of the General Assembly. – Myanmar NOW
Jokowi to appoint authority head and deputy head of Nusantara city
After consulting with the House of Representatives, President Joko Widodo (Jokowi) would appoint the authority head and deputy head of Indonesia's new capital Nusantara, according to the capital city law.
"The authority of capital city Nusantara is led by a head, and assisted by a deputy head. They are selected, appointed, and dismissed directly by the President after consulting with the House of Representatives," according to Article 9 paragraph (1) of the Law (UU) Number 3 of 2022 on the State's Capital City.
As revealed in a copy of the law that ANTARA quoted here Sunday, President Jokowi would also inaugurate them to lead the authority for five-year term since the date of their inauguration.
The law's Article 10 (1) further stated that they could be re-appointed with the same term of office. However, the authority head and deputy head could also be dismissed by the President at any time, even before their term of office ended. The head and deputy head of the capital city Nusantara authority were selected and appointed by the President no later than two months after the ratification of the law, or after February 15, 2022.
As the follow up of the law, the central government would issue a presidential regulation to describe all necessary points related to the authority's organizational structure, duties, authorities, and work procedures. – AntaraNews.Com