News Roundup 02 September 2021
Sep 02, 2021 • 4 min Read
Philippines sees 16,621 new COVID-19 cases | PHILSTAR.COM – Health authorities on Thursday reported 16,621 more coronavirus cases to bring the country’s total to 2,020,484. Today’s figures also saw active cases up by 5,561 from the 140,949 on September 1. The Department of Health said five laboratories did not submit test results.
- Active cases: 146,510 or 7.3% of the total
- Recoveries: 10,965, bringing the number to 1,840,292
- Deaths: 148, or now 33,680 in total
‘Church can’t remain on sidelines’: Radyo Veritas launches 2022 election initiative | PHILSTAR.COM – Church-run Radyo Veritas on Thursday launched its 2022 election campaign that seeks a return of “morality and ethics” in governing a country where most identify as Catholic but many also remain impoverished. Fr. Jerome Secillano said the “One Godly Vote” campaign will urge the electorate to make both among the standards of measuring candidates. “Legal and secular principles alone are not sufficient in addressing our country’s ills,” said Secillano, the campaign’s convenor. “As it now stands, there is a great deal of leaving morality and ethics out of the public sphere.” The priest, who is a Radyo Veritas anchor, is also executive secretary of the public affairs committee of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines. He said the campaign would reach out to Catholic and non-Catholic voters, and would analyze pressing issues in the country through tapping experts in different fields. “[Filipinos] should not compromise their votes. They should shun money, they should not be cowed by intimidation,” Secillano said, “they should not be swayed by empty, shallow and outrageous promises, and they need to hold on to the sacredness of their vote as if their choice is God’s choice to lead us to our future.” Secillano, however, sought to make clear that the move is not geared towards an eventual support to particular candidates by the Philippine clergy, nor is it led by the CBCP. The Catholic Church does not back bets unlike religious sects or groups in the country, and instead has always urged discernment among its faithful.
Hontiveros cites medical supplier’s legal mess, PH political links | INQUIRER.NET – President Rodrigo Duterte had established personal ties and was “interacting” with the people behind the mysterious Pharmally Pharmaceutical Corp., the trading company in the eye of a political firestorm for bagging P8.7 billion worth of government procurement deals in 2020, even before he took office, according to opposition Sen. Risa Hontiveros. Three people associated with Pharmally and its Taiwan-based parent company, Pharmally International Holding Co. Ltd., are now fugitives from Taiwanese law for financial crimes, including the president of a Xiamen, China-based company chaired by former presidential economic adviser Michael Yang, Hontiveros said. In an online press briefing, the senator showed the “family tree” of the foreigners behind the Pharmally group, whose executives had apparently disappeared and could not be reached at their listed addresses in the Philippines. Hontiveros presented documents confirming that Huang Tzu Yen, the missing CEO of the Manila-based Pharmally now being investigated by the Senate for winning “overpriced” medical supply contracts last year, and his father Huang Wen-Lai, who chairs Pharmally International, were wanted for financial crimes. The younger Huang, who is listed by Taiwanese authorities as a Singaporean citizen, is wanted for stock manipulation, while his father is facing charges of securities fraud, stock manipulation and embezzlement, based on information from Taiwan’s publicly available fugitive database. “Why is this government transacting with fugitives?” Hontiveros said. “Pharmally seems to be a breeding ground of criminals. Why are we doing business with people who are the subject of a warrant of arrest?” the senator said, noting that Pharmally won another government contract for medical supplies as recently as June, months after the Huangs went into hiding.
De Lima seeks probe into DOTr’s project delays, underutilization of funds | Manila Bulletin – Senator Leila de Lima has urged the Senate to look into the Department of Transportation’s (DOTr) inability to properly disburse the funds allocated to it under the Bayanihan to Recover as One Act or Bayanihan 2, as well as other delays in the implementation of its major projects. De Lima, in filing Senate Resolution No. 884, said the inability of the DOTr to fully utilize its funds not only hindered the implementation of much-needed programs but also immobilized already scarce funds which could have been appropriated towards the health and education sectors during this time of a COVID-19 pandemic. “It is imperative that DOTr’s policies are looked into to ascertain whether existing bureaucracies in its system hamper the performance of duties,” De Lima said in her resolution. “There should be no room for ineptitude and gross negligence in government service, especially at a time when such services are essential to the very survival of our citizens,” she added. The 2020 Commission on Audit (COA) report on the DOTr has noted several deficiencies, delays, and irregularities in DOTR project implementation. Aside from DOTr’s deficient disbursement of allocated funds under the Bayanihan 2 Act, the state audit report revealed that there was delay in 15 DOTr Foreign Assisted Projects (FAPs) for 2020 with an aggregate cost of P1,312-trillion, as well as misstatements in financial statements. Likewise, the COA report highlighted the agency’s failure to deliver the over P2.1-billion worth of license plates, and the failure of several regional offices of the Land Transportation Office (LTO) Disposal Committee to dispose 2,595 units of Impounded Motor Vehicle (IMV), which prevented the agency from earning more revenues.
