News Roundup 09 May 2021
May 09, 2021 • 5 min Read
DOH logs 7,174 new COVID-19 cases, total at 1.1 million | PHILSTAR.COM – Health authorities on Sunday tallied 7,174 new coronavirus cases, pushing the total to 1,101,990. The numbers today came a week before government decides if ‘NCR Plus’ will stay under modified enhanced community quarantine or shift to the less stricter GCQ. Active cases decreased by 2,082 from yesterday’s 63,376. The Department of Health said all laboratories were operational and submitted testing results.
- Active cases: 61,294 or 5.6% of the total
- Recoveries: 9,197, bringing the number to 1,022,224
- Deaths: 204, or now 18,472 in total
Using COVID-19 jabs without EUA a ‘mockery’ of FDA, Robredo says | PHILSTAR.COM – Vice President Leni Robredo on Sunday warned that using COVID-19 vaccines without emergency use approval only undermine local regulators, after President Rodrigo Duterte was inoculated with Sinopharm last week. The president stirred controversy anew after receiving his first dose of the Chinese-made jab on May 3. The Food and Drug Administration has cleared six vaccines, but Sinopharm has yet to be included in the list. Over radio DZXL, Robredo said using jabs without EUA could harm efforts by the FDA, whose experts are tasked to check that vaccines coming in to the country undergo rigorous assessment. “We have to be careful,” she said in Filipino. “In a way, you are promoting the vaccine administered to you and that’s difficult if it has no EUA. It makes a mockery of our existing regulatory agencies.” The country’s No. 2 added that she would get a vaccine as soon as it is available. But she said she would wait for her turn to ensure that those who urgently need it would get it first. “If we don’t use vaccines with EUA, then it is as if the FDA has no purpose, right?” Robredo added. This marks the second controversy involving Sinopharm in the Philippines. To date, no one has been held accountable over its illegal inoculation to the Presidential Security Group last year. In January, Robredo said the smuggled vaccines could hurt efforts to build public trust on the jabs as she called for transparency on its investigation.
Robredo ‘seriously concerned’ over Duterte remark on PH arbitral win vs China | INQUIRER.NET – Vice President Leni Robredo on Sunday expressed “serious concern” on the statement of President Rodrigo Duterte that the country’s win against China at the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague is just a “piece of paper” to be thrown away in the wastebasket. In her weekly radio program, the Vice President said she was also bothered by the President’s claim that China is in possession of the West Philippine Sea. “May dalawang sinabi si Presidente na tingin ko very serious, very serious iyong concern ko,” the vice president said in her program in DZXL. (The President has said two things that I think are very serious.) “Iyong number one, iyong pagsabi niyang iyong desisyon ng arbitral tribunal ay mere scrap of paper,” she explained. “Number two na serious iyong aking concern ay iyong sinabi niya iyong China ang may possession ng West Philippine Sea. Hindi iyon totoo.” (Number one, is his statement that the decision of the arbitral tribunal is just a ‘mere scrap of paper. Number two which is another serious concern is when he said China is in possession of the West Philippine Sea. That’s not true.) “Kasarinlan natin saka sovereignty iyong pinag-uusapan dito, na hindi mo puwedeng i-take lightly iyong naging desisyon, kasi kaya tayo umabot sa ganoong punto dahil sa pananakop sa mga pag-aari natin. Napakalaking win iyon sa atin,” she stressed. (We are talking about our independence and sovereignty here, and we should not take the decision lightly, because we are to that point because our territories are occupied. That [decision] is a very big win for us.) The Vice President also said she is just restraining herself from commenting on political matters to focus on the COVID-19 surge. “Umiiwas akong magkomento ng anything political ngayong nag-2nd surge, kasi para sa akin, dapat all hands on deck tayo ngayon, dahil malala iyong pinagdadaanan natin as far as COVID is concerned,” she explained. (I have avoided commenting on anything political especially there is a surge We should be all hands on deck now because we are going through something worse as far as COVID-19 is concerned.) “Pero iyong statements na iyon, iyong dalawang statements na iyon, seryoso iyon. Seryoso siya kasi mali. Seryoso siya kasi iyong sovereignty na natin iyong parang tinatapon mo sa labas ng bintana,” she said. (But those two statements are serious, because they are wrong. It is serious because it is as if our sovereignty is being thrown out of the window.) “Para sa akin, iyong dalawang statements na iyon ay hindi na bansa natin iyong — may pagkiling na talaga, may pagkiling na sa China,” she lamented. (For me, those two statements are not for our country, there is now bias for China.)
Resigned Nayong Pilipino executive director responds to Razon’s tirades | Manila Bulletin – Lawyer Lucille Karen Malilong-Isberto has slammed ports tycoon Enrique Razon Jr. for his “verbal abuse” over her opposition to the construction of a mega vaccination facility at Nayong Pilipino in Parañaque City. “Mr. Razon’s verbal abuse will not change the facts, the laws, or the science on environmental management,” Malilong-Isberto, the recently-resigned executive director of Nayong Pilipino Foundation (NPF), told the Manila Bulletin in an interview Sunday afternoon, May 9. “In any case, I have tendered my resignation as trustee of Nayong Pilipino. The President is free to replace me,” she said.
