News Roundup 08 June 2021
Jun 08, 2021 • 3 min Read
Coronavirus deaths in the Philippines cross 22,000 | PHILSTAR.COM – Local health authorities on Tuesday reported 4,777 more COVID-19 infections, bringing the national caseload to 1,280,773.
- Active cases: 56,452 or 4.4% of the total
- Recoveries: 7,122, pushing total to 1,202,257
- Deaths: 95, bringing total to 22,064
PDP-Laban officials face complaint for partisan politics | PHILSTAR.COM – A private citizen has filed an administrative complaint with the Office of the Ombudsman against three PDP-Laban personalities who are government officials for participating in a partisan political activity held in Cebu last May 31. Named respondents in the 17-page complaint were Raul Lambino, presidential adviser for Northern Luzon and administrator of the Cagayan Economic Zone Authority and PDP-Laban vice president for external affairs; Melvin Matibag, president and chief executive officer of the National Transportation Corp. and party deputy secretary-general; and Undersecretary Astravel Pimentel-Naik, executive director of the Commission on Filipinos Overseas and part of PDP-Laban’s membership committee. Victor Morillo, a resident of Quezon City and an advocate for greater public accountability, alleged that respondents engaged in a political activity prohibited under Executive Order No. 292 or the Administrative Code of 1987, during the party’s council meeting held in Cebu City last May 31.
Concepcion: Private sector no longer required to donate COVID jabs to gov’t | INQUIRER.NET – The private sector no longer needs to donate some of its procured doses of the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine to the government, presidential adviser for entrepreneurship Joey Concepcion said Tuesday. Concepcion, citing the country’s vaccine manager Carlito Galvez Jr., said the government will already have sufficient vaccine doses hence the private sector need not to donate its doses anymore. “Secretary Galvez, two or three weeks ago, told me and they’re making it official that there is no need for us to donate anymore. I asked him why, and he said the government will have sufficient doses,” Concepcion said in an interview over ABS-CBN News Channel. “That’s good news but those doses anyway are arriving next year in February, so there’s really no impact at this point in time,” he added. Concepcion said they initially only asked the government to delay their donation to early next year. Still, Concepcion said the private sector is committed to help the so-called NCR Plus 8 comprising Metro Manila, Bulacan, Cavite, Rizal, Laguna, Pampanga, Batangas, Cebu, and Davao in its vaccine supply. The private sector, local government units and the national government have signed a tripartite agreement for a total of 17 million doses of AstraZeneca jabs.
1Sambayan to release final nominees’ list for 2022 polls on June 12 | Manila Bulletin – Opposition coalition 1Sambayan will reveal the final list of nominees for president and other national candidates on Saturday, June 12 in the hope of being able to form a single opposition slate to stand against the Duterte administration’s bets in the 2022 national elections. In a statement, the pro-democracy coalition, which was formed in March this year, said that it will present the list of nominees for the May 2022 polls via its official Facebook page from 2 p.m. to 5 p.m. “On June 12, we begin our journey in choosing an opposition presidential candidate we will all support ‘in unity’ in the next elections. Unity is the operative word in this exercise, because we intend to consolidate our voices behind one contender,” former Supreme Court Senior Associate Justice Antonio Carpio, lead convenor of 1Sambayan, said. Titled “Isang Boto, 1Sambayan: Piliin ang Ating Pambato,” the coalition said it hopes this will jumpstart the process of picking a “united choice” as the opposition’s standard-bearer. All those whose names are on the final list “have agreed to submit themselves to 1Sambayan’s selection process,” Carpio added.
