News Roundup 18 March 2021
Mar 18, 2021 • 4 min Read
Philippines logs 5,290 new COVID-19 cases as tally rises past 640,000 | PHILSTAR.COM – COVID-19 cases in the Philippines climbed to 640,984 Thursday after the Department of Health recorded 5,290 additional infections.
– Active cases: 66,567 or 10.4% of the total
– Recoveries: 439, pushing total to 561,530
– Deaths: 21, bringing total to 12,887
‘Pro-democracy’ coalition to vet slate of opposition candidates for 2022 | PHILSTAR.COM – A coalition led by retired Supreme Court Justice Antonio Carpio is looking to unify democratic forces in the Philippines ahead of the 2022 polls. To avoid the splitting of votes in the upcoming elections, conveners of 1Sambayan will field and endorse a unified slate of opposition candidates, they said during the coalition’s media launch held Thursday. The slate will include a bet for president, for vice president, and candidates for the Senate. “The Filipino people deserve a better government,” Carpio said, as he criticized the Duterte administration as having been tried and tested and proven incompetent. “There are Filipino leaders who can do a much better job of running the government, reviving the economy, creating jobs for our people, and defending our territory and sovereign rights in the West Philippine Sea.” “We in the 1Sambayan will search for these Filipino leaders, unite them into one national slate and present the Filipino people with a clear choice in the May 2022 national elections.” In a video presented to reporters, the coalition said its criteria for choosing candidates to be endorsed are the following: a clean track record, upright stances on important issues, platform, and competence. Carpio emphasized that members of 1Sambayan place themselves across the country’s political spectrum, from the progressive members of Bayan Muna on the left to retired members of the military from the Magdalo party on the right. The coalition is eyeing Vice President Leni Robredo, Sen. Grace Poe, Manila City Mayor Isko Moreno, and former Sen. Antonio Trillanes IV as presidential and vice-presidential bets — all of whom have yet to announce their candidacy for 2022.
Lawmakers urge SC to look into red-tagging of Mandaluyong RTC judge | INQUIRER.NET – Lawmakers on Wednesday denounced threats against Judge Monique Quisumbing-Ignacio of the Mandaluyong City Regional Trial Court (RTC), who they said had been red-tagged for dismissing illegal firearms and explosives possession charges against a journalist and a trade unionist and ordered their release from detention. Bayan Muna Rep. Ferdinand Gaite posted on his Twitter account a picture of a poster with a message purportedly from the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP), its armed wing, the New People’s Army (NPA), and the Marxist umbrella group National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP), thanking Ignacio for freeing “our comrades.” Gaite said that the public display of the poster indicated that even judges were now “under attack.”Similar posters linking activists and other personages to the communist movement had preceded violent and fatal attacks against them. “The posting of this [poster] is highly condemnable and a blatant form of Red-tagging not just against activists like us, but also against all those members of the legal system and others who are supposed to provide a mechanism for due process of the accused,” Gaite said in a statement. Ignacio early last month dismissed the charges against Manila Today editor Lady Ann Salem and labor organizer Rodrigo Esparago, ruling that the evidence against the two were inadmissible after declaring that the search warrant used by law enforcers were “null and void.”
Lacson backs Cabral’s observation on pandemic: ‘PH 10 steps back to square one’ | Manila Bulletin – Senator Panfilo M. Lacson on Thursday said he fully agrees with former Health Secretary Esperanza Icasas-Cabral that the Philippines is 10 steps back from square one, not back to square one, in containing the deadly coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic. ‘’She knows from where she speaks being in the middle of all the health efforts as early as when the (COVID-19) pandemic hit our shores,’’ Lacson said as senators are worried about the surge in COVID-19 infections the past days. Queried on who is to be blamed, the government or the public, Lacson replied: ‘’Both, although government should have a bigger share of the blame.’’ Lacson blamed the government for over-regulation in procuring the vaccines because it has the money backed by foreign loans. He said government did not have the foresight to anticipate that there would be ‘’crowding’’ or competition among countries in negotiating for the purchase of vaccines as early as March or April last year. ‘’Sayang (what a pity),’’ he added. Opposition Senator Francis ‘’Kiko’’ Pangilinan said Cabral is an expert in public health and her observations carry much weight.
Photo: Saud Beach, Pagudpud, Ilocos Norte, Philippines
Photo Source: By John Ryan Cordova from Philippines – Pagudpud, CC BY-SA 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=4124698
