News Roundup 14 May 2020
May 14, 2020 • 2 min Read
NCRPO chief faces criminal raps over birthday celebration, Palace says | PHILSTAR.COM – Police Maj. Gen. Debold Sinas, chief of the Metro Manila police, along with other participants of his birthday party on Friday, May 8, are facing criminal charges, according to presidential spokesperson Harry Roque. Sinas drew flak on Wednesday over photographs posted by the National Capital Region Police Office’s public information office that showed him celebrating his birthday at Camp Bagong Diwa in Taguig despite quarantine protocols against mass gatherings. “Per my latest conversation with Philippine National Police Chief PGen. Archie Gamboa, a criminal case is now being readied to be filed tomorrow against NCRPO Chief Debold Sinas, along with other senior police officials who attended the gathering,” Roque told reporters.
House approves ABS-CBN provisional franchise on 2nd reading | INQUIRER.NET – Pressed by public outcry, the House of Representatives on Wednesday moved to pass a bill giving ABS-CBN a temporary license to go back on the air for five months while Congress decides whether to grant a fresh 25-year franchise to the country’s largest broadcast network. House Bill No. 6732, authored by Speaker Alan Peter Cayetano and seven other House leaders, will give a provisional franchise to ABS-CBN that will be valid until Oct. 31, 2020, “unless sooner revoked or canceled.” The bill, however, will face two challenges before it is passed into law: first, it will need the concurrence of the Senate and second, it will require the signature of President Rodrigo Duterte, who has repeatedly threatened to block the network’s franchise.
Pangilinan warns of a possible constitutional violation by the Lower House in ‘rushing’ ABS-CBN short-term franchise | Manila Bulletin – Opposition Senator Francis N. Pangilinan expressed fears on May 14, Thursday, for a possible constitutional violation by the House of Representatives when its Committee of the Whole passed on second reading of a bill giving ABS-CBN a short-term franchise. He cited a constitutional provision requiring the passage of a bill on three readings on separate days unless it is certified by the President as urgent. The first and second readings were approved on the same day, he pointed out.
Coronavirus may never go away – WHO | The Manila Times – GENEVA: The new coronavirus may never go away and populations around the world will have to learn to live with it, the World Health Organization warned Wednesday. As some countries around the world begin gradually easing lockdown restrictions imposed in a bid to stop the novel coronavirus from spreading, the WHO said it may never be wiped out entirely. “We have a new virus entering the human population for the first time and therefore it is very hard to predict when we will prevail over it,” said Michael Ryan, the WHO’s emergencies director. “This virus may become just another endemic virus in our communities and this virus may never go away,” he told a virtual press conference in Geneva.
