News Roundup 05 October 2020
Oct 05, 2020 • 3 min Read
2,291 new COVID-19 infections bring Philippine tally to over 324,000 | PHLSTAR.COM – The Philippines recorded 2,291 new coronavirus infections Monday. The new coronavirus has so far sickened 324,762 people in the country more than eight months since health authorities first detected a case. Of the figure, 45,799 were active infections. The country’s recovery count, meanwhile, rose to 273,123 after 87 more people have gotten well. But the death toll increased to 5,840 after 64 more patients succumbed to the respiratory disease.
Año cries foul over busted Facebook accounts, slams company ‘bias’ | PHILSTAR.COM – Interior Secretary Eduardo Año on Monday called into question what he said was Facebook’s biases, pointing out that the “private” pro-government pages were taken down while pages critical of the administration remain active. This comes as the latest development after social networking site Facebook announced that it busted a network of accounts exhibiting “coordinated inauthentic behavior” which it linked to the Philippine police and military, both of whom have since rejected the allegations.
Robredo gets mass support because she ain’t politicking, says spox | INQUIRER.NET – The lack of a political motive is the reason why a lot of people support Vice President Leni Robredo’s efforts through the COVID-19 pandemic, her spokesperson said on Monday. In a statement, lawyer Barry Gutierrez conceded to presidential spokesperson Harry Roque’s claims that Filipinos do not want government officials to engage in politicking — doing good for the sake of the political gain — especially during a health crisis. The two spokespersons’ reaction came after Pulse Asia released the results of its surveys on officials’ trust and approval ratings, which showed that 91 percent of Filipinos approve of President Rodrigo Duterte’s actions during the pandemic — relatively high compared to Robredo’s 57 percent approval rating. After this, Roque implied that Robredo’s lower trust and approval ratings might be because Filipinos do not like politicking. “Tama naman. Kaya nga karamihan pa rin ng ating mga kababayan suportado pa rin si VP Leni,” Gutierrez said. “Malinaw kasi na kahit katiting ang budget ng opisina, patuloy ang panlalait at paninira, at panay ang pagpakalat ng fake news sa Facebook laban sa kanya — nagtratrabaho pa rin siya para sa kapakanan ng marami.” (It is correct. That’s why most of our countrymen still supports VP Leni. It is clear that even with a small budget for the office, despite continuous attempts to taint her reputation, despite the spread of fake news on Facebook against her, she is still working for the people’s welfare.) “Nagpapasalamat kami sa ating mga kapwa Pilipino na patuloy kumikilala sa kanyang walang tigil na paglilingkod sa ating mga kababayan,” he added. (We are thanking the Filipino people who have acknowledged here non-stop service to our countrymen.)
IBC-13 union launches mass actions to denounce network irregularities | Manila Bulletin – Employees of the state-owned IBC-13 television network launched this week a series of mass actions against alleged massive graft and corruption in the management of the firm while it continues to deny the workers the benefits mandated under the collective bargaining agreement. Citing audit observations in the 2019 IBC-13 annual audit report released recently by COA, the IBC Employes Union (IBCEU) called on President Duterte to put an end to the corruption that the audit agency has uncovered. In a statement, IBCEU president Alberto Libo-on said the group remained hopeful Duterte will be able to address the issues raised by COA, adding that the Chief Executive must act on them immediately. IBC-13 is an attached agency of the Presidential Communications Operations Office under Secretary Martin Andanar.
200 PNPA cadets, staff recover from Covid-19 | The Manila Times – All the more than 200 cadets and personnel of the Philippine National Police Academy (PNPA) who caught the coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) had recovered, the chief of the academy announced on Sunday. MGen. Gilbert Cruz, PNPA director, said the recoveries were confirmed after the mass testing for Covid at the academy on September 8 all yielded negative results. The tests were all done through swab testing, which has been considered globally as a gold standard for testing if an individual has been infected with Covid-19.
