News Roundup 06 September 2020
Sep 06, 2020 • 4 min Read
DOH mass recovery adds 23,000 recoveries; total cases at 237,000 | PHILSTAR.COM – On the 173rd day since the first quarantine, health officials added 2,839 coronavirus cases and 23,074 recoveries to its running tally Sunday, bringing their totals to 237,365 cases since the pathogen was first discovered, and 184,687 patients who have since recovered from it. In its latest case bulletin, the Department of Health also added 85 deaths from the sickness, which means that 3,875 Filipinos have already died from it. There are still 48,803 total active cases or patients who are still infected with the coronavirus, accounting for the casualties and recoveries. Over the week, the national caseload increased by 19,969 cases since Sunday, August 30.
Government eyes flattening of curve by end of month | PHILSTAR.COM – National Task Force on COVID chairman Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana bared that the government is looking to flatten or taper off the coronavirus transmission curve by the end of the month to shift major cities to the most lenient community quarantine level. Lorenzana said they want most of the country to shift to modified general community quarantine (MGCQ) by November in a bid to open up the economy. “Our objective for this month is to flatten or lower the curve by the end of September so we can go to MGCQ and ease the life of the people,” he said in Filipino. Lorenzana presided over a meeting of the Coordinated Operations to Defeat Epidemic (CODE) Team in Caloocan City yesterday. He said the government is now focusing on contact tracing efforts, as he admitted that this was one of the lapses in the COVID-19 response.
Robredo says all gov’t offices must aspire for high COA audit rating | INQUIRER.NET – Government agencies should look at high audit ratings as a goal, to prevent massive corruption scandals like the one now hounding the Philippine Health Insurance Corporation (PhilHealth). This was the response of Vice President Leni Robredo after the Commission on Audit (COA) gave her office the highest audit rating for the 2019 calendar year — a citation that the Office of the Vice President (OVP) has been given for two years now. “Dapat iyong lahat na government offices ina-aspire ito para pinagtatrabahuan. Kasi kapag ina-aspire mong magkaroon ka ng unqualified opinion, sinisiguro mo na iyong lahat na proseso mo malinis, hindi ka nalulusutan, maayos lahat ng iyong papeles, maayos iyong lahat na proseso,” Robredo said during her Sunday radio program with DZXL. “So kami noong naayos namin noong 2017, naayos na namin iyong mga proseso sa opisina, ito na talaga iyong inaspire namin,” she added. Robredo also relayed that corruption-stricken PhilHealth is not on the list of government offices with the highest audit rating. According to Robredo, fixing bad practice in handling public funds and implementing projects could start from the top, because leaders cannot wield authority if they handle funds improperly.
Leni says Manila Bay white sand project a misplaced gov’t priority | Manila Bulletin – Vice President Leni Robredo said today that the white sand project at the Manila Bay is a misplaced priority by the government especially during this coronavirus pandemic. Speaking in her weekly radio show, Robredo called out the administration for spending P349 million for the project when it had repeatedly admitted the lack of funds for COVID-19 response. “Napaka-insensitive na gagawin mo ‘yan sa height ng pandemic na ang daming nagugutom, ang daming naghihirap (It is very insensitive you will do that at the height of pandemic when many people are starving and suffering),” she said. ”Sa panahon ngayon na ang sagot sa atin wala tayong pera, nakakainsulto kapag nakikita ng tao ‘yung ganitong programa (At a time like this when their response to us is that we have no funds, it is insulting when people see this kind of program),” she added. The Vice President suggested to give each of the 10 million poorest Filipinos families a monthly cash aid worth P5,000 to help them cope during the crisis but the government has no plans to implement it because it has no enough funds. Robredo said the millions of funds used for the white sand project of Manila Bay could have been better spent to help 80,000 families in need.
‘Parked pork’ bared in 2021 infra budget | The Manila Times – The P1.1-trillion proposed infrastructure budget for next year submitted by the executive branch was infused with lumps sums “parked” at the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH), according to Gabriela party-list Rep. Arlene Brosas. Brosas said she discovered this during the recent budget briefing by the Development Budget Coordinating Council of the Department of Budget and Management, which indicated that P397.22 billion or 60 percent of DPWH’s total budget were lump sum funds lodged in its central office without any breakdown — unlike in previous budget documents. She said in the 2020 General Appropriations Act, the DPWH’s specific infrastructure programs were accounted for in the subtotal. “But as we look at the 2021 National Expenditure Program, there were no details or any breakdown of a number of appropriations under the Central Office. This means that the infrastructure program was far from ‘shovel-ready’,” the lawmaker said in a statement. The party-list lawmaker said that “this ‘parked pork’ could’ve been enough to build additional public hospitals and health centers especially with the current sorry state of our healthcare system. But the government left this huge amount without any item under DPWH.”
