News Roundup 10 October 2020
Oct 10, 2020 • 3 min Read
COVID-19 infections in the Philippines breach 336,000, deaths now at 6,238 | PHILSTAR.COM – The Department of Health confirmed 2,249 mores cases of novel coronavirus on Saturday, bringing the national caseload to 336,926. Of these cases, 54,594 are active. Recovered patients are at 276,094, after 842 more recoveries were reported by the health department. Meanwhile 87 new deaths were logged by the DOH, bringing the country’s death toll to 6,238.
Release of political prisoner urged following death of her three-month-old baby | PHILSTAR.COM – Rights group Karapatan is renewing its call for the immediate release of Reina Mae Nasino, a political prisoner detained in Manila City Jail and denied the opportunity to be with her three-month-old baby River who passed away last night. “Nasino has already been cruelly deprived of her right to care for her child and to be with her in her dying moments,” a statement released by Karapatan on Saturday morning read. Nasino is only 23 years old. “It is even more imperative to assert the call for the immediate release of Nasino on humanitarian and just grounds, with the appalling circumstances she is facing at present and to allow her to grieve this terrible loss of life,” the group urged.
Indonesian suicide bomber, 2 others nabbed in Sulu | INQUIRER.NET – An Indonesian suicide bomber, who is believed to be the daughter of the couple behind the Jolo blasts in January 2019, and two others were arrested in Jolo, Sulu early Saturday. The Joint Task Force Sulu said Rezky Fantasya Rullie, also known as “Cici” was arrested at around at 1:50 a.m. in a house believed to be owned by Abu Sayyaf sub-leader Ben Tatoo in Barangay Raymundo. Also arrested during the operation were Tatoo’s wife, Inda Nurhaina, and Fatima Sandra Jimlani, who is the wife of an Abu Sayyaf member. Seized from the site of the arrest were suicide vests rigged with pipe bombs and other improvised explosive devices, the Joint Task Force Sulu reported.
COA: PhilHealh ‘overpaid’ hospitals, clinics over P936.65 M | Manila Bulletin – Over P6.88 billion in audit disallowances were incurred by the Philippine Health Insurance Corporation (PhilHealth) for various financial transactions that the Commission on Audit found irregular, disadvantageous to government, or outright fraudulent. COA, in its 2019 annual audit report for the graft-ridden agency, also revealed that PhilHealth had overpaid hospitals, clinics, and other health care institutions of over P936.65 million for the year in review. Auditors revealed that pneumonia has been the medical case with the highest overpayment that reached P105.93 million and a difference of 117.67 percent from the actual charges. They stressed that this is “highly unusual.” Overpayment has been noted to be high for dengue, urinary tract infection, and hypertensive emergency care. The audit also revealed that employees received financial benefits totalling P198.238 million in 2015 that were not taxed but were instead deducted from the PhilHealth account. “The Corporation’s payment to this tax deficiency resulted in unjust enrichment on the part of the concerned employees at the Corporation’s expense,” auditors stressed as it noted that uncollected withholding tax from employees totaled P50.016 million. COA warned that PhilHealth’s failure to collect the tax deficiency from employees may result in audit disallowances.
Visitors to PH warned on fake DFA endorsements | The Manila Times –The Bureau of Immigration (BI) has warned international travelers against using fake endorsements from the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) to circumvent existing restrictions imposed by the government to prevent the spread of the coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19). Immigration Commissioner Jaime Morente on Friday also warned travel and manning agencies against facilitating the use of fake endorsements or risk cancellation of their accreditation with the bureau. The warning stems from intelligence reports and pictures that syndicates are “trying to falsify these documents to allow the entry of those currently restricted” due to Covid-19, Morente said.
