News Roundup 08 July 2021
Jul 08, 2021 • 4 min Read
Philippines sees 5,484 more COVID-19 cases | PHILSTAR.COM – Philippine health authorities on Thursday reported 5,484 new coronavirus cases to bring the country’s total to 1,455,585. Today’s numbers saw active cases up by 1,747 from July 7’s 47,289. Authorities said all laboratories were able to submit screening results.
- Active cases: 49,036 or 3.4% of the total
- Recoveries: 3,925, bringing the number to 1,380,899
- Deaths: 191, or now 25,650 in total
‘Drug war’ critic Bishop David elected CBCP president | PHILSTAR.COM – Bishop Pablo Virgilio David, one of the fiercest critics of President Rodrigo Duterte’s deadly “war on drugs,” was elected Thursday as the president of the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines. The 62-year-old Caloocan prelate will be replacing Archbishop Romulo Valles of Davao as the CBCP president. He will begin his term on Dec. 1, 2021. David, who had been serving as CBCP’s vice president since December 2017, had earned the ire of Duterte for his staunch opposition to the bloody campaign against illegal drugs which has taken the lives of some 6,000 people as of April, according to government data. Duterte had baselessly accused David of stealing church donations and being involved in the drug trade. In response, David said Duterte was “sick” and clueless with what he was talking about. “You see, people who are sick sometimes do not know what they are talking about, so we should just bear with them,” the bishop said. David, one of the country’s leading Bible scholars, was the chair of the CBCP’s Episcopal Commission on Biblical Apostolate. He was also one of five Filipino bishops sent to the 2008 Synod of Bishops on the Word of God in the Vatican.
Trillanes hits back at Paras’ ‘nobody’ tag: He’s irrelevant, insignificant | INQUIRER.NET – Ex-Senator Antonio Trillanes IV on Thursday hit back at President Rodrigo Duterte’s new political affairs adviser, who called the former lawmaker a “nobody” following his plunder claims against the Chief Executive and Senator Bong Go. “Mr. Paras is irrelevant and insignificant. Their actions and responses show that they cannot directly confront the allegations against them. Iniiba ang usapan (They’re changing the topic),” Trillanes said in a statement. He was reacting to pronouncements made by former Negros Oriental Rep. Jacinto “Jing” Paras, who was recently named as Duterte’s adviser for political affairs. During a Palace briefing earlier in the day, Paras, in his first appearance as Duterte’s political affairs adviser, devoted airtime to lambast Trillanes, calling the former senator a “nobody.” Despite this, Trillanes stood behind his claims that Duterte and Go allegedly plundered P6.6 billion in government projects. “Ang bottomline is, according to COA (Commission on Audit) documents, nag-award si Duterte sa construction company ng tatay at kapatid ng alalay nyang si Bong Go ng 184 projects amounting [P6.6 billion] Maliwanag na plunder ‘yan,” the former senator added. (The bottomline is, according to COA documents, the Duterte administration awarded the construction companies owned by his aide Go’s father and brother with 184 projects amounting to P6.6 billion. That’s clear plunder.)
Without board exams, Filipino professionals cannot qualify for local, int’l job markets—Villanueva | Manila Bulletin – Senator Joel Villanueva on Thursday, July 8 said the country’s professional licensure system should remain as Filipino professionals would have a hard time making it to local and international job markets if they do not pass the board examinations. Villanueva, who chairs the Senate Committee on Labor and Employment, made the statement after Labor Secretary Silvestre Bello III floated the idea of scrapping the board exams, particularly for nurses and other professionals, due to the high cost of studying and taking the test. The senator said that despite the struggles of the Professional Regulation Commission (PRC) to hold these certification tests the past year due to the COVID-19 pandemic, licensure examinations are still the benchmark that can boost the credibility of Filipino workers locally and internationally. “Despite our disappointment with how the PRC has been failing our graduates with the way they’ve postponed and pushed back scheduled board exams since last year, it is very clear to us that the professional certification exams such as the various boards exam must remain,” Villanueva said in a statement. “Hindi po makakapagpractice ang ating mga professionals dahil hindi sila (They won’t be able to practice their profession if they are not) board certified…It is the final ‘quality control’ check before we allow graduates to practice a profession which depends on the lives of the people—like physicians—or safety of buildings, like engineers,” he added. “If tech-voc graduates, like mechanics who fix cars, require TESDA certification, how much more for doctors who will repair hearts?” Villanueva pointed out. The lawmaker said this is precisely why he filed Senate Resolution No. 661 which seeks to help PRC identify alternative ways of conducting board exams amid the pandemic and the new normal, and not to abolish the commission.
