News Roundup 16 June 2022
Jun 16, 2022 • 4 min Read
Año gives Cebu gov’t until weekend to ‘rectify’ face mask rule | INQUIRER.NET – Interior Secretary Eduardo Año on Thursday gave the Cebu provincial government until the weekend to “rectify” its ordinance making the use of face masks outdoors voluntary before resorting to legal remedies. Garcia issued Executive Order (EO) No. 16 on June 9, lifting the mandatory requirement of wearing face masks in open and outdoor spaces. It was adopted by the Cebu provincial board into an ordinance last Tuesday. The Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) did not recognize the local government’s legislative actions, which said that the Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF) rule on face masks is still in effect in Cebu province, as in the entire country. “We will be giving the Cebu Provincial Government, the governor, and the councilors to amend, rectify and adjust their ordinance and EO, to be consistent with the EO 151 and the implementation of the alert level system, which is part of the EO 151,” Año said during a press conference at Camp Crame in Quezon City. “Maybe over the weekend, we will give them the chance to rectify. After the weekend, then we will do whatever is necessary,” he added.
DOJ’s decision to proceed with prosecution ‘pains’ De Lima | INQUIRER.NET – A frustrated Senator Leila de Lima on Thursday expressed dismay over the decision of the Department of Justice (DOJ) to continue prosecuting her drug cases despite several witnesses retracting their allegations against her. “It pains me that the very institution that I served faithfully has failed in its foremost, noble task to protect the innocent,” De Lima, a former justice secretary, said in a dispatch from Camp Crame where is currently detained. “Secretary Menardo Guevarra’s decision to adopt the position of the DOJ Panel of Prosecutors to continue prosecuting my cases in spite of categorical claims of coercion of witnesses is plainly a safe and nonchalant gesture. It is devoid of any effort to dig deeper[ into] the wider scheme of things behind my persecution by [President Rodrigo] Duterte. It is nothing but a worthless, unsubstantial table review,” she said. She described Guevarra’s decision as “frustrating but not at all surprising or unexpected.” “I guess it was wishful thinking to expect anything different from Sec. Guevarra. Regrettably, it is still a Pontius Pilate act when he simply relied on the so-called ‘assessment’ of the very panel of prosecutors handling the cases,” she said. “It is doubtful that Sec. Guevarra even read the recantation of Rafael Ragos where it was revealed that early on, Ragos already told the members of this panel not to expect his testimony to be perfect, given that it was all made up [of] lies and forced upon him by former SOJ Vitaliano Aguirre. Did he even confront the panel of prosecutors as to the truth of Ragos’s accusations against them?” De Lima added.
34% of Filipino adults say their quality of life worsened – SWS | PHILSTAR.COM – Three out of every 10 Filipino adults believed that their quality of life was worse during the last 12 months, a poll conducted by Social Weather Stations suggested. The survey conducted from April 19 to 27 asked 1,440 respondents: “Comparing your quality of life these days to how it was 12 months ago, would you say that your life is better now than before, same as before, or worse now than before?” Thirty-four percent of the respondents said their quality of life became worse (classified by SWS as “losers”) compared to a year ago, while 32% said it got better (classified as “gainers”). Another 34% said their lives remained unchanged. The net gainer score—gainers minus losers—was -2, which the polling firm classified as fair. The figure was 14 points higher than “mediocre” -16 in December 2021, but still 20 points below the pre-pandemic level of “very high” +18 recorded in December 2019. According to the pollster, the 14-point improvement in the national net gainer score between December 2021 and April 2022 was due to increases in all areas. The score in Metro Manila was up by 14 points to “mediocre” -11 and “high” +4. It also rose by 13 points in Balance Luzon to “high” +1 from “mediocre” -11. The scores eased to “mediocre” 12 from “very low” -31 in Visayas and to “fair” -4 from “mediocre” -15. The sampling error margins for the survey were ±2.6% for national percentages and ±5.2% for Balance Luzon, Metro Manila, Visayas and Mindanao.
