News Roundup 11 March 2021
Mar 11, 2021 • 4 min Read
Philippines posts biggest daily rise in COVID-19 cases in nearly six months | PHILSTAR.COM – The Department of Health logged 3,749 additional COVID-19 infections Thursday, taking the total confirmed caseload to 607,048.
Active cases: 47,769 or 7.9% of the total
Recoveries: 406, pushing total to 546,671
Deaths: 63, bringing total to 12,608
EU reminds Philippines of pledge to ensure accountability for rights abuses after Calabarzon killings | PHILSTAR.COM – The European Union to the Philippines reminded the government of its commitment to ensure accountability for human rights violations and abuses following the killing of nine activists during police and military raids in Calabarzon. In a statement Wednesday night, the EU delegation said it welcomed the government’s move to investigate the killings of nine individuals by the Philippine National Police and the Armed Forces of the Philippines on March 7. “Reports on the use of excessive force against unarmed individuals and alleged irregularities in the law enforcement operations have raised concerns,” it said. The EU delegation reminded the Philippines of its commitment made with the regional bloc last February 5, where both parties “agreed on the need to acknowledge and protect human rights defenders and enable their work in accordance with the UN Declaration on Human Rights Defenders.” “We recall the commitment undertaken by the Philippines at the Human Rights Council to ensure accountability for human rights violations and abuses, in accordance with due process under national courts of law and in full compliance with its international human rights obligations,” it added. Eight men and one woman were killed as police and military personnel executed search warrant Sunday in Batangas, Cavite, Laguna and Rizal provinces. They were all activists or members of left-leaning organizations, which state forces repeatedly accuse of being fronts for communist rebels. Authorities also arrested six others during the raids. The killings came two days after President Rodrigo Duterte told security forces they could kill communist rebels and “ignore human rights.”
Recto laments ‘pandemic of unsolved killings’; calls for end of ‘dirty war,’ ‘death squads’ | INQUIRER.NET – Senate President Pro Tempore Ralph Recto on Thursday called for an end to the “dirty war” and “death squads” as he lamented the “pandemic of unsolved killings” in the Philippines. “The dirty war should end and the death squads stopped if we want to spare our democracy from lasting damage that would take generations to fix,” Recto said in a statement amid a series of killings in the country involving policemen. Nine activists were killed in simultaneous police and military operations in the Batangas, Cavite, Laguna, and Rizal provinces last Sunday while the mayor of Calbayog City, Samar province, Mayor Ronaldo Aquino, was slain also by policemen the following day. “This epidemic of unsolved killings has rocked our people’s faith in our justice system. It is bleeding from a thousand wounds caused by assassins’ bullets,” Recto went on. “Every time a lawyer is killed, a judge waylaid, an activist executed, a mayor ambushed, a slum teenager murdered, an agent of the state silenced, it strengthens the perception that justice is elusive and crime does pay,” he said. Recto feared this “mass erosion of faith in the rule of law” would “drive desperate people to take the law into their own hands.”
Robredo camp twits Roque: ‘Who’s really campaigning amid the pandemic?’ | Manila Bulletin – The camp of Vice President Leni Robredo on Thursday, March 11, chided Presidential spokesperson Harry Roque for saying she was politicking and already campaigning for the May 22 presidential elections. In a Twitter message, Robredo’s spokesman Ibarra Gutierrez posted screenshots of news reports about administration officials’ purported political agenda for the upcoming elections. He cited the reported public endorsement by President Duterte on his longtime aide and now Senator Bong Go to be his successor when he steps down next year. He also cited Davao City Mayor Sara Duterte-Carpio’s tarpaulins and streamers urging her to run as president next year that hang in several key cities in the country. These bear the words “Run, Sara, Run.” Gutierrez also didn’t spare his counterpart in Malacañang for his last year’s attendance at a public event in Bantayan Island in Cebu. He has gone to different tourists spots, which has been perceived by his critics as early campaigning for his Senate bid, even at the height of the lockdown restrictions. “Sino nga ulit ang namumulitika at nangangampanya sa gitna ng pandemya? Lantarang lokohan na ito eh (Who is again politicking and campaigning in the middle of the pandemic? This is a glaring deception),” Gutierrez wrote. Gutierrez made the Twitter post in response to Thursday’s remark by Roque who accused the vice president of campaigning for her presidential bid in 2022.
Photo: Limunsudan Falls, Iligan Ciy, Lanao del Norte, Philippines
Photo Source: By Floresa816 at English Wikipedia – Own work (Original text: I (Floresa816 (talk)) created this work entirely by myself.), Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=18236172
