News Roundup 14 June 2020
Jun 14, 2020 • 4 min Read
Palace says deciding on the fate of Metro Manila a ‘gamble’ | PHILSTAR.COM – President Duterte is expected to announce on Monday his decision on the fate of Metro Manila, a product of what Malacañang called a “gamble” that required him to contain the coronavirus while promoting economic activity. Lockdown restrictions have been eased nationwide since June 1, with the government placing Metro Manila under the more lenient general community quarantine (GCQ) to gradually reopen the pandemic-battered economy. Some sectors are hoping that Metro Manila — home to more than 12 million people and source of more than a third of the Philippines’ gross domestic product — will shift to the most relaxed modified general community quarantine (MGCQ) on June 15 so more businesses can resume operations. However, such hopes are being dashed by the continuous rise in the number of persons infected with the virus. The number of confirmed coronoavirus cases in the Philippines has breached 25,000, with more than 600 new infections reported last Saturday. Majority or more than 13,000 of the cases were recorded in Metro Manila. “Based on the numbers in Metro Manila and Cebu, it seems that it is not yet appropriate to relax (the quarantine measures). But as I said earlier, it would be up to the president because he would balance the economy and the capacity to provide critical medical care to those who will get sick,” presidential spokesman Harry Roque told radio station dzBB on Saturday. “But it’s a gamble and we will just let [the president] make the decision,” he added.
DOH logs 539 new COVID-19 cases in PH; total now at 25,930 | INQUIRER.NET – The Philippines now has 25,930 confirmed cases of coronavirus disease, the Department of Health (DOH) said Sunday. This as the DOH recorded 539 new cases on Sunday. Of the newly-reported cases, 366 are fresh cases while 173 are late cases. The health department also recorded 248 new recoveries, raising the total number of recoveries to 5,954. Meanwhile, the health department said the country also posted a total of 1,088 deaths after 14 more people succumbed to the respiratory ailment.
Arrest of Muslims stoke anti-terror bill fears for Hataman | Manila Bulletin – Is this a portent of things to come? Deputy Speaker and Basilan lone district Rep. Mujiv Hataman condemned on Sunday the warrantless arrests of two Muslim traders in San Andres, Manila and the alleged illegal search on their residence that took place without a court order. That the questionable police operation occurred on Friday, Independence Day and in the backdrop of the potential signing of the Anti-Terrorism Law makes it quite ironic, he said. Hataman expressed dismay over the way the police handled the alleged operation against Saadudin Alawiya and Abdullah Maute, whom elements of the Manila Police District (MPD) has tagged as drug suspects. Perhaps the most contentious provision in the proposed anti-terror law is the power of police to conduct warrantless arrests and detention of up to 24 days. The bill is up for President Duterte’s signature. Tension rose in the suspects’ residence in the afternoon of June 12, when anti-drugs agents of the MPD allegedly stormed their house without identifying themselves, conducted a search of the vicinity without any search warrant, and subsequently arrested the two without an arrest warrant.
Tone-deaf BIR trips over a peso to pick up a centavo | The Manila Times – In what has to be one of the most ill-timed and insensitive decisions made during the Wuhan Virus crisis, the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) issued this week a directive that online sellers must register their businesses and pay the legally mandated taxes, including taxes on past transactions, by July 31 or risk penalties for tax avoidance. The BIR’s directive may be justified, but it is not in any sense practical, for a couple of obvious reasons, which this paper, in its fawning editorial on Saturday, could have done some worthwhile public service to highlight. First, there is a question of whether focusing on tens of thousands of low-value taxpayers is the most efficient way for the BIR to gather the revenues the government needs. Many critics have accused the BIR of giving a free pass to the universally detested POGOs (Philippine offshore gaming operators) that, according to the government’s own prior statements, owe billions in due taxes. It may not actually be the case that the BIR is ignoring that issue, but that is the perception, and so if it is going to “run after” small taxpayers, the only way it can hope to do so without encountering a great deal of defiance is to demonstrate that it is putting most of its effort into properly collecting from the biggest sources. Second, the BIR directive may inadvertently aggravate the economic downturn. Online commerce is one of the few things that has ameliorated the negative effects of the months-long lockdown and kept the economy ticking over. Since many of those affected by the BIR directive are doing business informally, a very likely response to it would be for those entrepreneurs to simply stop. A further drop in any sort of economic activity is something the country should avoid at all costs, particularly now when it is just beginning to reemerge from its lockdown paralysis.
