News Roundup 11 November 2021
Nov 11, 2021 • 3 min Read
Philippines’ COVID count up by 1,974 more cases | PHILSTAR.COM – The Department of Health on Thursday said 1,974 more Filipinos contracted the COVID-19, bringing the country’s total count of infections to 2,811,248. Authorities said 1.0% of the overall caseload remain as active cases. DOH said, too, that two laboratories failed to submit COVID-19 testing output.
- Active cases: 28,660 or 1.0% of the total
- Deaths: 142, pushing the count to 44,866
- Recoveries: 2,388 bringing the number to 2,737,722
After bolting from Hugpong, Sara Duterte joins Lakas-CMD | PHILSTAR.COM – Davao City Mayor Sara Duterte-Carpio became a member of former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo’s Lakas-CMD party just hours after she resigned from her regional party Hugpong ng Pagbabago. Duterte-Carpio took her oath as Lakas-CMD member at 6 p.m. before House Majority Leader Martin Romualdez (Leyte) — party president — and in the presence of party Sen. Bong Revilla, the party’s chairman, at the latter’s farm in Silang, Cavite. “We had long been inviting Mayor Inday to join our party as we are all impressed with her sterling qualities as a leader and we saw up close her exemplary work ethic as chief executive of Davao City,” Romualdez said in a statement shortly after Duterte-Carpio took her oath. Duterte-Carpio’s change in parties came just days before the Commission on Elections’ deadline for the substitution of candidates on November 15. Lakas-CMD fielded a certain Anna Capella Velasco for president, but party secretary-general Propsero Pichay told ABS-CBN News said in response to a question on whether Velasco is just a placeholder that she was. Pichay later walked back this statement.
Ely Buendia pays Robredo a visit, gifts her EHeads’ 25th anniversary album | INQUIRER.NET – Former Eraserheads frontman Ely Buendia paid Vice President Leni Robredo a visit on Thursday, gifting her a limited edition of the band’s 25th Anniversary Album on vinyl. In a post on her Facebook page, Robredo shared photos of her and Buendia, along with the album given by the musician. Robredo said that Buendia’s arrival shook their office, with many of her staffers are fans of the vocalist. “Ely Buendia in the house!! Grabe, nabulabog opisina. He gave me this Eraserheads 25th Anniversary Limited Edition on vinyl,” Robredo said in her post. “Thank you, Ely. Nakita mo kung gaano kadami fans mo sa office namin,” she added. Buendia, last September 28, deadpanned on Twitter that the disbanded Eraserheads band just might stage a reunion concert if Robredo will run in the 2022 presidential elections. At that time, Robredo had yet to make up her mind on whether she would seek the presidency.
Angara to Bato: NTF-ELCAC funds were cut due to unexplained costs | Manila Bulletin – Senator Sonny Angara on Thursday, Nov. 11 rejected insinuations made by a colleague that the Senate could be seen as a supporter of the New Peoples’ Army (NPA) if the funding for the government’s anti-insurgency task force would suffer drastic cuts. Angara, during the continuation of the Senate’s plenary deliberation on the proposed 2022 national budet, said that based on the documents submitted to the Senate Finance Committee, only 26 out of the total 2, 318 projects under the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict’s (NTF-ELCAC) Barangay Development Fund that was worth P16.4-billion have been completed. The documents, he also said, showed that 700 more projects are still in the procurement stage, 560 are still being implemented. On top of it, the letter from the NTF-ELCAC clarifying their expenditures was sent only after the Senate decided to cut its budget for next year from P28-billion to just P4-billion. Upon hearing Angara’s explanation, Sen. Ronald “Bato” Dela Rosa protested the budget cut and warned that the Senate could be regarded a supporter of the NPA and other communist groups as he reiterated that proposed anti-insurgency funds is meant to usher development to communities to prevent them from joining rebel groups. But Senate President Vicente Sotto III explained the Senate’s decision to cut the NTF-ELCAC budget was due to the agency’s failure to explain how they utilized their funding. Angara agreed and noted that the NTF-ELCAC do not even have a copy of the report when their budget was slashed by P24-billion.
