News Roundup 16 May 2022
May 16, 2022 • 4 min Read
Robredo supporters in Negros Occidental willing to join Angat Buhay NGO | INQUIRER.NET – “While I am away, I will still be on top of the preparations for the launch of Angat Buhay NGO,” said Robredo, who left Saturday for New York for the graduation of her daughter Jillian. Her Negrense supporters said they were waiting for the guidelines on how they could join and support the organization. “We are waiting for the launching of Angat Buhay NGO. Members of Laban Leni Negros Occidental are very much interested to join,” said Pinky Mirano Ocampo, spokesperson of the Laban Leni Negros Occidental (LLNO). Millie Kilayko, president of the Negrense Volunteers for Change, said they were partners of Robredo even when the latter was still a congresswoman. “Being a part of whatever endeavor for good that citizen Leni will establish will come naturally,” she said.
Malacañang website containing historical records goes down | INQUIRER.NET – Malacañang’s official website, which also stored the Presidential Museum and Library that contained the historical records of the Martial Law regime under the late dictator Ferdinand Marcos Sr., had suddenly gone down on Monday. This was flagged by former Presidential Communications Development and Strategic Planning Office Undersecretary Manolo Quezon III in a tweet. “malacanang.gov.ph where the repositories of the Presidential Museum and Library were, is gone,” said Quezon. This also came just a few days after the May 9 elections saw the son of the late dictator and namesake Bongbong Marcos Jr. leading the presidential race by a large margin at 31 million votes over Vice President Leni Robredo, who garnered just 14.8 million votes. Despite the official website being down, Quezon listed alternative links of historical materials that were stored within the currently inaccessible website — some of these were from The Official Gazette, which is the official journal of the Philippines, and Archive.org a public domain where copies of the materials were uploaded.
Over 3M Filipinos based abroad went back home because of COVID | PHILSTAR.COM – Over 3.11 million Filipinos previously based abroad have come home because of the pandemic as of May 13, more than the 1.77 million estimated number of overseas Filipino workers in 2020 reported by the Philippine Statistics Authority. According to the Task Group on Management of Returning Overseas Filipinos, nearly 2.067 million of the 3.11 million were previously OFWs, while 724,361 were non-OFWs and 313,205 were listed as foreign nationals. The pandemic brought the world to a halt in the first half of 2020, pushing OFWs and other overseas Filipinos to either seek refuge in their host countries or be repatriated. As of Monday, reported COVID-19 infections have ballooned to 521.476 million across the world according to Johns Hopkins University data. In the Philippines, COVID cases have already reached 3.68 million. The task group also reported that 32,594 of the returning overseas Filipinos tested positive for the virus during their quarantine upon arrival. Only 50 remain admitted at 11 quarantine facilities, while 32,515 have since recovered. The death toll stands at 29.
No sustained rise in COVID-19 cases following poll-related activities — OCTA | PHILSTAR.COM – There were no sustained increases in COVID-19 infections in the country following election-related activities, OCTA Research said Monday. OCTA Research fellow Guido David told public broadcaster People’s Television that there were small spikes in COVID-19 cases, which eventually ceased.“Wala pa tayong nakikitang increase in cases doon sa mga campaign rallies, sorties. February pa tayo nagkaroon ng campaigns, wala pa namang nagkakaroon ng pagtaas ng kaso na talagang sustained,” David said. (We have yet to see an increase in cases due to campaign rallies and sorties. Campaigns started in February, but there were no sustained rises in cases.) “So far, wala pa naman tayong nakitang indication na may clustering of cases dahil sa recent election natin so mino-monitor pa natin in case na magkaroon ng pagtaas ng bilang ng kaso,” he added. (We have yet to see any indications of clustering of cases due to the recent elections. So we’re still monitoring in case we experience a rise in infections.) The Department of Health earlier said it will take around two weeks to see the effects of poll-related activities on the country’s COVID-19 situation. The OCTA Research fellow also reported that the positivity rate, reproduction number, and hospital utilization in the country remained low.
