News Roundup 11 February 2021
Feb 11, 2021 • 4 min Read
Philippines logs 1,734 new COVID-19 cases as total hits 543,282 | PHISTAR.COM – The Philippines logged 1,734 new coronavirus infections Thursday, pushing the nationwide total to 543,282. Of the confirmed cases, 31,478 are active cases or those who are still undergoing treatment or quarantine. Recoveries reached 500,335 after 423 more people were cleared of the virus. Meanwhile, the death toll increased by 68 to 11,469.
Private vehicle inspectors to lower fees; Palace says MVIS no longer mandatory | PHILSTAR.COM – Following widespread criticism on social media, owners of Private Motor Vehicle Inspection Centers have decided to lower their inspection fees and waive their reinspection fees for private and public utility vehicles for one year. This was confirmed by Transportation Assistant Secretary Giovanni Lopez at a virtual press conference by the Department of Transportation on Thursday. As a result, the PMVIC testing fee will be lowered to P600 for private vehicles from P1,500-P1,800 earlier, while the inspection fee for motorcycles will also be lowered to P500 and P300 for public utility jeepneys. Later Thursday, the Palace announced that the much-criticized motor vehicle inspection system would no longer be mandatory.
NUJP airs alarm over AFP chief’s ‘burden of denial’ remarks on journo | INQUIRER.NET – Citing a longstanding judicial tenet, a media organization on Thursday raised an alarm over remarks made by Armed Forces of the Philippines chief of staff Lt. Gen. Cirilito Sobejana that INQUIRER.net reporter Tetch Torres-Tupas bore the “burden of denial” against the allegations of Lt. Gen. Antonio Parlade. Jr. “No sir, the burden of proof is ALWAYS on the accuser,” the National Union of Journalists of the Philippines said in a statement. The NUJP called out Sobejana following claims he made during a media briefing Wednesday implying that Parlade and Torres-Tupas both shared burdens of proof. The NUJP said for Sobejana to consider the possibility that Torres-Tupas’ reporting might have been influenced by her “emotions,” which was first suggested by Parlade, is dangerous, pointing out that the AFP chief was picking up “Parlade’s twisted logic and dangerously equate journalism, or the mere act of writing a news report, with the journalist’s supposed ‘sympathy.’” “This is victim-blaming, pure and simple, and attempts to create a legal fiction that both accuser and accused have an equal responsibility,” it said.
PH COVID 19 vaccine supply: no firm commitment yet from manufacturers | Manila Bulletin – The Philippine government has not signed a supply agreement with any of the world’s coronavirus disease (COVID-19) vaccine makers. Vaccine czar Carlito Galvez Jr. and Health Secretary Francisco Duque III pointed this out during a hearing today by the Senate finance committee chaired by Senator Juan Edgardo ’’Sonny’’ M. Angara. Galvez said negotiations for a supply agreement are still going on with Sinovax, Cocovax, Moderna and AstraZeneca. What this means, according to Senate Minority Leader Franklin M. Drilon, is that there is still no firm commitment that vaccines would be arriving in the country and expectations of vaccines coming to the country are just based on the good relations of Galvez. The only vaccines that are scheduled to arrive in the Philippines are the 600,000 doses of Sinovac vaccines that do not need a supply agreement because they are donations from China. Galvez explained that there are term sheets that had locked initial agreements to buy the vaccines and that 108 million doses had been secured. Galvez said that when the Sinovac shipment arrive on February 23, there would be a technical inspection of the vaccines in two to three days followed by vaccination but this depends on the issuance by the Food and Drugs Administration (FDA) of emergency use authority (EUA) for the Sinovac vaccines.
Herd immunity by 2023? Better earlier – Robredo | Malaya Business Insight – VICE President Leni Robredo yesterday said the government’s target of finishing its COVID-19 vaccination program by 2023 is a “cause for concern” because the Duterte administration should be striving to achieve herd immunity sooner. She said it is a cause for concern because many Filipinos are suffering and many have lost jobs because of the pandemic. Robredo said the faster Filipinos are vaccinated against COVID-19, the better for the country as things can go back to normal and the economy will start recovering. Data from the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) showed that the Philippine economy contracted by 9.5 percent overall in 2020, the worst performance in the nation’s post-war history. The figure is even worse than the predicted contraction of 4.5 to 6.6 percent, which became the basis of the Development Budget Coordination Committee or DBCC for the 2021 National Expenditure Program. “Dapat ‘yung goal natin better than 2023. Nakakapag-alala ‘yon kasi as of now, ang daming naghihirap na mga Pilipino, ang dami nang nawalan ng trabaho, so dapat ‘yong goal natin the faster na mabakunahan ang mas maraming tao (Our goal should be better than 2023. That’s a cause for concern because many Filipinos are suffering, many have lost their jobs so our goal should be to vaccinate our population faster),” Robredo said in a Question and Answer style video posted on her Facebook page.
Photo Source: By Xeres Gagero – Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=23170507
