News Roundup 15 May 2021
May 15, 2021 • 4 min Read
COVID-19 deaths in the Philippines top 19,000 | PHILSTAR.COM – Health authorities on Saturday recorded 6,739 additional COVID-19 cases, bringing the total number of infections to 1,138,187.
- Active cases: 56,709 or 5.0% of the total
- Recoveries: 8,952, pushing total to 1,062,427
- Deaths: 93, bringing total to 19,051
NCR Plus reopens further despite high coronavirus positivity rate | PHILSTAR.COM – Metro Manila, along with Cavite, Rizal and Bulacan, further reopened Saturday despite the positivity rate in the capital region hovering way above the recommendation set by the World Health Organization for economic reopening. The positivity rate in Metro Manila stands at 12%, according to the independent OCTA Research. In contrast, the WHO recommends that the positivity rate should remain at 5% or lower for at least 14 days for a safe reopening. Department of Health spokesperson Maria Rosario Vergeire told state television that they based their recommendation to ease coronavirus curbs in Metro Manila and nearby provinces on the average daily attack rate, the transmission rate and two-week growth rate, which she said have all decreased. She did not mention, however, whether they also considered the positivity rate in their decision to ease restrictions in Metro Manila and nearby provinces as they have done in the past. Aside from the positivity rate, other indicators which gauge the status of the coronavirus pandemic in the country are improving.
PNP to tackle coordination in operations with PDEA | INQUIRER.NET – The Philippine National Police (PNP) and the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) will again meet to discuss issues of coordination in their respective operations. PNP chief Guillermo Eleazar made the announcement Saturday after officers of the Quezon City Police District (QCPD) and agents of the PDEA apparently found themselves on the opposite ends of each other’s operations once again on Friday. “Kaya nag-schedule tayo ng meeting with the [PDEA] Director General Wilkins Villanueva kasama ang ibang concerned officers para ito mapag-usapan at maayos na,” Eleazar said. It was not the first time that operatives from the PDEA and the QCPD found themselves on the opposite ends of an operation. Last February 24, QCPD police officers from Station 6, conducted an operation not knowing that their targets — PDEA agents — were also doing their own operation. That incident ended in the deaths of two police officers, a PDEA agent, and a PDEA informant.
Pangilinan: Focus on voter registration, not on probable election candidates | Manila Bulletin – The focus should first be on encouraging Filipinos to register and vote, and not yet on the personalities who might seek elective posts in the 2022 polls. This was Senator Francis “Kiko” Pangilinan’s position when asked about former senator Antonio “Sonny” Trillanes IV’s possible bid for presidency in next year’s national and local elections. “We’ll know soon enough by October kung sino ang mga tatakbo talaga (who will really run). But for now, the focus should be on encouraging more people to register to vote,” Pangilinan, president of the Liberal Party (LP), said in his May 15 statement about Trillanes’ announcement last Wednesday, May 12. Pangilinan said he prefers to just “wait and see” as to who the opposition will field as candidates for the presidential, vice-presidential, and senatorial races. The camp of Vice President Leni Robredo earlier denied Trillanes’ disclosure that she is already preparing to run for governor of Camarines Sur province in Bicol. Robredo has yet to make a decision about the 2022 elections, and that she still focuses on helping people amid the COVID-19, said the Vice President’s spokesman Barry Gutierrez. In his appeal, the senator cited pronouncements from the Commission on Elections (Comelec) that around 2.8 million new voter applicants have already registered for next year’s elections. The Comelec earlier announced a goal of four million new voters for 2022. “By Comelec’s target, at least 1.2 million new voters still need to register. That’s around 12,300 new registrants every day until the deadline, excluding weekends and holidays,” Pangilinan said. “This is all the more reason we should ramp up our COVID[-19] response to test, trace, isolate. And hasten vaccine roll-outs so we can ensure that our citizens is one, safer from the pandemic and two, able to exercise their democratic rights. The 2022 elections, after all, will elect leaders who will see us through post-pandemic recovery,” he noted.
