00:03A delightful and carefree Tuesday evening to all, proud Filipina eyes, Martinez here who's happy to bring you PTV News
00:10Now and we kick off stories tonight with results of a major regional educational assessment covering a five-year period
00:16from 2020 to 2024 and released in mid-December last year show that while Filipino students improve their arithmetic or
00:25math skills, reading or comprehension skills have essentially stagnated or stagnated.
00:30This alarming development has prompted the DSWD to express its support for the institutionalization of the Tarabasa tutoring program as
00:41contained in Paranaque Representative's proposed Tarabasa Act of 2026.
00:45The bill is the brainchild of Paranaque House lawmaker Eric Olivares who introduced and sponsored it in the House's plenary
00:52session yesterday.
00:54The program focuses on three key partner beneficiaries, elementary school pupils, parents and guardians, and youth tutors and development instructors.
01:04Likewise, the program seeks to institutionalize a range of support mechanisms to include capacity-building initiatives for youth beneficiaries, structured
01:15tutorial sessions, cash incentives, referral services, and a robust monitoring system.
01:22As two countries in Eastern Europe enter a fifth year of a bloody and high casualty warfare, five countries in
01:29Southeast Asia who are founding members of the ASEAN celebrate an impact of friendship and continuing cooperation that has turned
01:38gold.
01:38The treaty of amity and cooperation which the country jointly signed along with Malaysia, Singapore, Malaysia, and Thailand in 1976
01:48embodies universal principles of peaceful engagement and congenial collaboration anchored on mutual respect for sovereignty and territorial integrity among states
02:00in Southeast Asia.
02:01For the country's part, it celebrates this historic milestone with the launch of the TAC logo, or commemorative logo, which
02:09highlights the country's national flower, the Sampaguita.
02:13Foreign Affairs Secretary Maria Teresa Lazzari reached back then recalling how the treaty was intended as a framework for peaceful
02:20engagement and cooperation but has since transformed into a cornerstone of regional trust and stability.
02:27From its original party of five members, total signatories number a total of 58 to include the first world nation
02:35-slash-global powers like the United States, China, Japan, France, Canada, the European Union, India, and Russia.
02:45Today is the fourth year anniversary of the Russia's invasion and war against Ukraine.
02:50For the latter's part, the last four years have led to a serious crisis and demographics, with an estimated 140
02:57,000 soldiers of mostly men who've lost their lives in the war.
03:01Ukraine is fast turning into a country of widows and orphans.
03:05A small town in the western part of the country is grappling with this dilemma, as this VOA feature report
03:11narrates.
03:14Memorials of fallen soldiers lying in the main square of Maquive.
03:18The photos capture their faces in happier times.
03:23Above them, a slogan that has become one of the defining mantras of this war, glory to the heroes.
03:31Maquive is more than 600 kilometers from the front lines.
03:36Yet, few places illustrate the deep impact of this war as vividly.
03:40Here, men of military age exist only in photographs, or in the lonely graves of the town's cemetery.
03:49Everyone else is gone.
03:53Look!
04:00Driver Alexander Komovsky has lived in Germany for more than 30 years.
04:06He returned to his hometown for the first time since the war began to renew his documents, only to find
04:13that all his friends and relatives were gone.
04:18It's a tragedy, he says.
04:22Komovsky says many of the town's fighting age men are hiding in the countryside to avoid being sent to the
04:29front lines.
04:30On the streets of Maquive in early February, most of the people VOA met were women.
04:38Many said that with the man gone, life has become much harder.
04:46I am an old woman.
04:48I'm over 70.
04:50Of course, this is a bigger problem for younger women, those left behind with children.
04:55If a man is at home, he is not only a protector, but also a provider.
05:00He helps with everything, especially financially.
05:09Many villages and towns across western Ukraine are struggling with the absence of men.
05:16But Maquive is also a reflection of a larger demographic crisis that was already reshaping Ukraine before the war.
05:24The government says the country's population has fallen from 52 million in 1991 to just 32 million in 2024.
05:38This fact scares me a lot.
05:40So many people left with their families and he changed everything in the country.
05:44The country itself has changed a lot.
05:47It's sad because so many people are gone.
05:49I have no girlfriends, no friends, almost all my family has left.
05:52And it's just sad.
05:54There are no friends, no friends, no friends.
05:56Angelina Bondar is only 15.
05:59One of her neighbors died in the war.
06:02Some are still fighting.
06:05Many of her friends left before even reaching adulthood.
06:09She knows that one day will be up to her generation to rebuild Ukraine.
06:15She is just not sure she is ready to face that challenge.
06:20Ian Buesha, VOA News, Maquive, Ukraine.
06:26So we've come to the end of the show.
06:28Join us anew tomorrow for yet another round of major stories here and abroad and breaking at the hour.
06:34Always keep in mind to stay connected by catching the news right here.
06:37This has been Ice Martinez wishing you all a cool and restful night ahead.
06:41And thank you for watching PTV News Now.
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