News Roundup 20 September 2021
Sep 20, 2021 • 4 min Read
DOH reports 18,937 more COVID-19 cases | PHILSTAR.COM – Health authorities on Monday reported 18,937 more coronavirus cases to bring the country’s total to 2,385,616. Today’s figures saw active cases down by 1,346 from the 178,196 on September 19. The Department of Health said five laboratories did not turn in screening results.
- Active cases: 176,850 or 7.4% of the total
- Recoveries: 20,171, bringing the number to 2,171,832
- Deaths: 146, or now 36,934 in total
Ex-ICC judge: Probers can get evidence on killings even if barred from Philippines | PHILSTAR.COM – The International Criminal Court can employ alternative ways to get evidence on crimes against humanity allegations against President Rodrigo Duterte and his men in its investigation into the government’s “drug war,” a retired judge of the ICC said. In an interview with ANC’s “Headstart” on Monday, former ICC Judge Raul Pangalangan said the proceedings will now move to determine whether charges may be filed against officials named as respondents in the case. The pre-trial chamber will now look into evidence against specific persons tagged in the case. He said that these can be in the form of “statements, of course, by individuals and, in fact, in a very recent case by the court, even…statements from social media.” The retired judge stressed that the consideration of social media as evidence “was quite a step,” especially that courts are very traditional institutions. The ICC may also fly witnesses to The Hague, but online mechanisms can be used too if the investigator cannot physically come to the country, Pangalangan said. “Virtual access [of] online mechanisms to receive evidence is allowed by the court, we have done that. We have done video link testimony from the home countries of the witnesses where it was safer for them to do it or when they are otherwise unavailable,” he said.
‘It’s time for the downtrodden to win,’ Pacquiao says on declaring bid for presidency | PHILSTAR.COM – Manny Pacquiao, who rose to world fame with a phenomenal boxing career before somewhat fading in a lackluster political career, has thrown his hat in the presidential arena as the standard-bearer of a faction of the PDP-Laban, the ruling party now divided by his political tussles with President Rodrigo Duterte. The 42-year-old boxer-turned-lawmaker said “yes, I accept” to his nomination on Sunday during a “national assembly” of his faction of the party that he and Sen. Aquilino Pimentel III, this faction’s chair, had called. Elected House representative in 2010 and rising up the legislature in just six years when he was elected senator in 2016, Pacquiao now endeavors to make another bold leap, this time to the country’s highest post by 2022. “I am a fighter and I will always be a fighter inside and outside the ring. In my life, I have never backed down because… I need to stand up and fight,” he said in his acceptance speech to cheers during the assembly in Quezon City that was also held as a video conference. Using classic underdog rhetoric, Pacquiao said: “It’s time for the downtrodden to win. It’s time for our nation to rise up from poverty. It’s time for us to have a clean government where every centavo will go to every Filipino.”
Ateneo de Manila lauds principled stand of Gordon vs corruption in gov’t | Manila Bulletin – The Ateneo de Manila Alumni Groups representing the majority from Class 57-61-65 on Monday, Sept. 20 said they support the principled stand of distinguished HS62 alumnus Senator Richard J. Gordon for his courageous call for our elected officials to live up to uncompromising morality in governance, dedication to the call of duty to the nation, protection of its citizens and utmost integrity in the disposition of the nation’s treasury. In a statement, these groups called on all Ateneo Alumni and their families to now come out and voice out their opposition to governance driven by self-interest and misplaced loyalty borne out of “utang na loob (gratitude).’’ ‘’It is time to draw the line and demand from our elected officials to put first the interest of Filipinos, especially the medical frontliners, the marginalized and the millions now forced out-of-work by the pandemic, and hardworking small Filipino businessmen now struggling to survive and to keep their workers from starving.,’’ it said. ‘’The unconscionable prioritization of the interests of foreign agents under the administration’s “emergency powers” has clearly promoted fraudulent operations, resulted in unimaginable waste of much needed resources and abuse of authority, thus allowing economic resources to be surreptitiously diverted to foreign and local personal interests to the gross disadvantage of the nation and its people,’’ it stressed. May God give Senator Gordon the wisdom, strength and courage in his battle against all odds for honest and good governance. One Big Fight!,’’ it added. Another statement pointed out that they ‘’continue to be steadfast in full support of our distinguished Senator Richard J. Gordon for his courageous efforts in weeding out scalawags who have allegedly stolen billions of our taxpayers money while thousands of our fellow men, women and children are suffering and dying from this deadly pandemic. Scores of our over-worked and under-paid medical frontliners are now in dire straits.’’
