News Roundup 16 September 2020
Sep 16, 2020 • 4 min Read
Coronavirus infections in Philippines climb past 272,000 | PHILSTAR.COM – The country’s coronavirus caseload increased to 272,934 Wednesday after the Department of Health announced 3,550 cases Wednesday, marking the ninth straight day that additional cases were more than 3,000. Researchers studying the coronavirus outbreak in the Philippines earlier projected that the number of coronavirus cases may fall between 310,000 and 330,000 cases by end-September. The total number of recoveries rose to 207,858 after 524 more patients recovered from the respiratory illness. The death toll also climbed to 4,732 with 69 new fatalities.
Villanueva renews call to lift deployment ban on health workers | PHILSTAR.COM – Yet another lawmaker is urging the government to lift its deployment ban on health workers who want to work abroad for better pay. Sen. Joel Villanueva on Wednesday renewed his appeal, saying he had already written twice to the Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases to make the same plea. The lawmaker said that when wrote to the IATF on June 18 and August 28, he emphasized the plight of health workers who “are their families’ breadwinners, have left their jobs to pursue overseas employment, and have spent considerable time and money to train and prepare for deployment.” “Supply of healthcare workers is not our government’s issue, rather [it is its] ability to put value on their work. There is no doubt that our healthcare workers will choose to stay and serve in our health centers and hospitals if they can be assured of job security and sufficient salaries and benefits,” he added in Filipino.
4 charred bodies found in Basilan helicopter crash — police | INQUIRER.NET – Authorities still cannot determine the identities of the bodies inside the Air Force helicopter that crashed in Lantawan town, Basilan on Wednesday afternoon, police said. “Wala pa identity, sunog po yung mga katawan, (We have no identity of the charred bodies),” Police Lt. Richelle Perez, chief of Lantawan Municipal police station, said in a phone interview with INQUIRER.net. Earlier, authorities confirmed that the rescue chopper of the PAF’s 505th Search and Rescue Group, which has a tail number 202, crashed at 1 p.m. in Barangay Upper Manggas. Members of the Scene of the Crime Operatives are at the crash site for investigation, Perez said. Perez also said they are expected to meet members of the Philippine Airforce on Thursday to help in the investigation of the crash.
Carpio is petitioners’ counsel in ICC case against Xi Jinping | Manila Bulletin – Retired Supreme Court Associate Justice Antonio Carpio will stand as counsel for a petition to hold Chinese President Xi Jinping and other Chinese officials criminally accountable for their actions in the South China Sea before the International Criminal Court (ICC), former Foreign Affairs Secretary Albert del Rosario announced on Wednesday. “We are submitting our Response this week to the International Criminal Court’s Prosecutor, and I am happy to announce that Justice Tony Carpio has agreed to join our quest for justice, as our counsel in this ICC Case,” Del Rosario said in his opening remarks in a webinar on Southeast Asia’s China challenge. With Carpio’s vast experience as a legal luminary with “unparalleled wisdom and expertise in the South China Sea issue”, Del Rosario is confident that the former magistrate will “surely bolster our efforts in the ICC.” The former top Filipino diplomat was referring to a Communication that he and former Ombudsman Conchita Carpio Morales had filed with the Office of the Prosecutor of the ICC on March 13, 2019.
Morales, PhilHealth execs face graft raps | The Manila Times – President Rodrigo Duterte has approved the recommendation of a task force to file criminal and administrative charges against former Philippine Health Insurance Corp. (PhilHealth) president and chief executive officer Ricardo Morales and other officials of the agency. The President agreed with the panel’s report that “the totality of the evidence presented before the task force supports the conclusion that wrongful acts or omissions on the part of certain key corporate officers of the PhilHealth have been committed.” The task force led by the Department of Justice (DoJ) recommended the filing of charges against Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer Arnel de Jesus, Senior Vice President Jovita Aragona, Officer in Charge Calixto Gabuya Jr., Senior Vice President Renato Limsiaco Jr., Senior Vice President Israel Francis Pargas, Officer in Charge Calixto Gabuya Jr., and division chief Dobby Crisostomo for violating Republic Act 3019 or the “Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act.”
