News Roundup 16 November 2021
Nov 16, 2021 • 4 min Read
PH’s daily COVID-19 tally falls below 1K after 10 months | Manila Bulletin – For the first time in 10 months, the country’s daily coronavirus disease (COVID-19) cases once again dropped to below 1,000 on Tuesday, Nov. 16. The total number of new people who tested positive for COVID-19 was at 849, the DOH said in its latest case bulletin. However, this drop in cases can be attributed to “low testing output,” the DOH said. “The 849 new cases reported today is largely due to the regular low testing output coming from the weekend. Last Sunday showed the lowest testing output,” the DOH noted. Also, six laboratories were not able to submit their data to the COVID-19 Document Repository System, thus, their data was not yet included in the latest tally. The last time the Philippines reported less than 1,000 infections was on Jan. 5, when there were 937 cases. Active infections or those who are still sick also went down to 25,464. It was shown in the latest case bulletin that 59. 1 percent of the active infections have mild symptoms, 18.61 percent are in moderate condition, 11.5 percent have severe symptoms, 5.9 percent are asymptomatic, and 4.9 percent are in critical condition. The death toll also increased by 99 to 45,808. Meanwhile, the recovery tally jumped to 2,748,069 after 2,393 new patients were able to survive from the viral illness.
Sara Duterte confirms alliance with Marcos, says PDP-Laban refused to back them | PHILSTAR.COM –Davao City Mayor Sara Duterte-Carpio on Tuesday confirmed that Lakas-CMD, the party backing her vice-presidential bid, has formed an alliance with Partido Federal ng Pilipinas, the party led by her running-mate Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. The president’s daughter also said that the administration PDP-Laban party refused to back her joint bid with the ousted dictator’s son, whose party earlier adopted her as a candidate. “My party formed an alliance and asked for support for Bongbong Marcos and for me after I accepted your challenge and call,” she said in a statement written mostly in Filipino.”The PDP has rejected this and we understand it.” “But I just want to make it clear — no name is slandered or defiled, no one is abused, no one is aggrieved, fought, made to cry or oppressed,” she added, seeming to dispute her father’s story that his longtime aide, Sen. Christopher “Bong” Go, cried when he learned that Duterte-Carpio would be running against him for the vice-presidency.
Sotto: Candidate Duterte should disclose SALN, take voluntary drug test along with other bets | PHILSTAR.COM – Senate President Vicente Sotto III, a vice presidential candidate, on Tuesday said President Rodrigo Duterte should disclose his wealth declarations to the public. He also reiterated his stand that candidates, which would include Duterte now that he is seeking a Senate seat, should voluntarily submit themselves to drug tests. “Yes, I believe so.” Sotto told ANC’s “Headstart” when asked if he thinks Duterte should release his Statement of Assets, Liabilities and Net Worth. “He is the president. The people expect transparency [from] their leaders.”
In Duterte country, volunteer groups try to win some votes for Robredo | INQUIRER.NET – Over a month since Vice President Leni Robredo announced her intention to run for president in the 2022 national elections, various grassroots organizations have already shown their support for her possible candidacy by launching their respective campaigns. Robredo herself admitted that her campaign has been generated by the people, so much that their motif — the color pink — has been attributed to her supporters’ choices. In fact, the running joke has been that naming these groups have been easy as picking out a particular sector of society and then placing the words “for Leni” afterward: so you have the more serious Lawyers for Leni, Quezon for Leni, LGBTQIA+ for Leni, and the quirky ones too, just like Singles for Leni or Marupok (Fragile) for Robredo. But it appears that the strangest of things is not yet over after another group launched their organization on Tuesday: the group, dubbed Davao for Leni, aims to bring people living in Davao City and nearby towns to vote for the Vice President. It may be a longshot, considering Robredo has criticized President Rodrigo Duterte, the longtime mayor of the city and because Davao City Mayor Sara Duterte-Carpio is also running for vice president under a different ticket, but organizers think it is worth a try. Lawyer Meong Cabarde, the coordinator of APILA at Ateneo de Davao University, speaks to the group in a Davao for Leni online forum about the reasons for setting up the group in an environment that could prove hostile. Cabarde said during Tuesday’s program that it was a collective effort of people trying to effect change.
