News Roundup 08 October 2021
Oct 08, 2021 • 5 min Read
Philippines sees 10,670 more COVID-19 cases | PHILSTAR.COM – Health authorities on Friday logged 10,670 more coronavirus cases to bring the Philippines’ caseload to 2,643,494. DOH said two laboratories did not submit screening results. The agency also added 104 deaths from October 5 and 6 after no fatalities were reported on the said days due to technical issues.
- Active cases: 118,203 or 4.5% of the total
- Recoveries: 7,691 bringing the number to 2,486,059
- Deaths: 191, or now 39,232 overall
Filipino journalist Ressa among Nobel Peace Prize winners | PHILSTAR.COM – The Nobel Peace Prize was on Friday awarded to journalists Maria Ressa of the Philippines and Dmitry Muratov of Russia for their fight for freedom of expression in their countries. The pair were honoured “for their efforts to safeguard freedom of expression, which is a precondition for democracy and lasting peace,” the chairwoman of the Norwegian Nobel Committee, Berit Reiss-Andersen, said. “They are representatives of all journalists who stand up for this ideal in a world in which democracy and freedom of the press face increasingly adverse conditions,” she said. In 2012, Ressa, 58, co-founded Rappler, a digital media company for investigative journalism, which she still heads. Rappler has “focused critical attention on the Duterte regime’s controversial, murderous anti-drug campaign,” Reiss-Andersen said. Muratov, 59, has meanwhile defended freedom of speech in Russia for decades, under increasingly challenging conditions. In 1993, he was one of the founders of the independent newspaper Novaya Gazeta, which has a “fundamentally critical attitude towards power” the committee said, and has been its editor-in-chief since 1995. “Without freedom of expression and freedom of the press, it will be difficult to successfully promote fraternity between nations, disarmament and a better world order to succeed in our time,” Reiss-Andersen said.
‘We’re the real opposition,’ says Robredo on splitting votes with Isko Moreno | INQUIRER.NET – Vice President Leni Robredo is no longer concerned that she and Manila Mayor Isko Moreno would split the opposition vote in the 2022 presidential race, saying her group has always been the “real opposition” even from the start. Robredo was asked about possibly getting low votes due to the sheer number of candidates for the upcoming polls, to which she admitted being concerned initially. But then she said that since they were standing on different grounds, they would also have different backgrounds and support bases — which for Robredo, is the opposition side. “Alam mo to be very honest about it, ‘yon ‘yong una kong paniniwala. But I had a number of talks with a lot of them, and ‘yong na-realize ko, marami kasi kaming points na hindi kami aligned, na ito ‘yong mga basic na paniniwala, na mahirap i-pilit ‘yong unity kung sa mga basic na prinsipyo hindi kayo nagkakaisa,” she said during her briefing on Friday. “So ‘yong sa akin, hindi na ako gano’n ka-concern ngayon than when I was first starting, kasi lumalabas naman kasi ngayon kami talaga ‘yong oposisyon, wala namang lumalabas na kapareho namin in the sense na mula umpisa nakipaglaban talaga,” she added. Asked if she thought this would be the same scenario between her and Moreno, she said that the two of them stand on different grounds. Robredo then revealed that there were key contradicting points between the two of them, which eventually led to the failure of the unity talks. “I don’t believe so. After all the talks that we did, ang paniniwala ko iba ‘yong base namin, ‘yong sa akin — para sa akin klaro kung saan ako naka-posisyon, ito ‘yong paniniwala ko about governance, ito ‘yong paniniwala ko about ‘yong aspiration ko para sa bansa, ito ‘yong paniniwala ko na papaano ko dadalhin ‘yong bansa papunta do’n sa aspiration na ‘yon,” Robredo said. “And during sa talks and even sa mga pronouncements, meron kaming basic differences pagdating doon. So I don’t think pareho ‘yong aming voting bloc,” she added. When pressed to discuss what were the talking points between him and Moreno, Robredo declined out of respect for the candidates she approached.
Robredo reminded of Duterte’s threat vs her Palace bid, but she gives savage retort instead | Manila Bulletin – Vice President Leni Robredo has more important things to worry about than threats made by President Duterte on late night television. Robredo, who filed her certificate of candidacy (COC) for president on Thursday, was asked in a press conference Friday, Oct. 8 on what she thought about the statement made by Duterte last year that he would “destroy” her if she vies for the presidency in May 2022. Specifically, Duterte said in his late night “Talk to the People” public briefing on Nov. 17, 2020 that he would be Robredo’s “nightmare” should she run for the country’s highest post. “Hindi ko na iyon problema (That’s not my problem anymore),” the unfazed lady official said to a loud cheer from her supporters. “Hindi ko na iyon problema kasi maraming…mas marami namang importanteng bagay na kailangang tutukan. Ako, suggestion ko, pandemic na lang tutukan kasi iyon naman iyong pinakaproblema natin (That’s not my problem anymore because…because there are a lot of important things that must be addressed. For me, I suggest that we just focus on the pandemic since that is our main problem),” Robredo said in a rather savage remark. The Vice President has been a consistent critic of how the Duterte administration has handled the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic. Her common criticism is that nobody seem to be acting as “captain of the ship”. In November last year, Robredo criticized the Chief Executive for supposedly being absent during the onslaught of typhoon “Ulysses”. That’s why, in that particular episode of Talk to the People, Duterte sounded fed up over Robredo’s comments and said, “Next time, do not make a mistake or I’ll be forced to insult you because you are playing too much.” “During the campaign, papaalis na ako. Sige subukan mo. Matagal na ako maraming gusto sabihin sayo. Ireserba ko (I’m on my way out. I dare you. I’ve been wanting to say things about you for a long time. I’ll reserve them). When you start your campaign pag magtakbo ka ng presidente, waswasan kita nang husto (and you run for president, I will thoroughly destroy you). This is your nightmare,” he said. At any rate, Robredo told journalists that she doesn’t feel worried about her chances in the May 2022 elections despite deciding to run for president at the eleventh hour.
