News Roundup 17 November 2020
Nov 17, 2020 • 4 min Read
Coronavirus cases in the Philippines exceed 410,000 | PHILSTAR.COM – Another 1,148 Filipinos were reported to have contracted novel coronavirus by the health department on Tuesday, pushing the national caseload to a grim 410,718. Of the total number of cases logged, 28,313 are classified as active, which means they are still undergoing treatment or quarantine. Recoveries rose to 374,543 after another 186 recovered patients were recorded by the Department of Health. But the death toll climbed to 7,862 after DOH logged 23 more fatalities.
SC rejects Marcos move to keep Leonen out of poll protest, tells Calida to explain self | PHILSTAR.COM – The Presidential Electoral Tribunal has ordered Solicitor General Jose Calida to explain he should not be cited in contempt as it junked his and former Sen. Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr.’s motions for Associate Justice Marvic Leonen to inhibit from the vice presidential poll protest. The Supreme Court Public Information Office said Tuesday that the SC, sitting as PET, tribunal voted unanimously to deny the Motions to Inhibit separately by Marcos and Calida. The PET also issued a show-cause order to Calida over his motion to inhibit Leonen from the case. Marcos, in his motion, accused Leonen of manifesting partiality to Vice President Leni Robredo in the poll proceedings. Calida, just hours later, filed a separate motion bearing almost the same arguments as Marcos’. Calida said he was filing the motion to inhibit as part of his mandate of being “tribune of the people,” the same reason he used when he took a stand favoring Marcos in the voting shade threshold issue.
Ulysses death toll now at 73 | INQUIRER.NET – The number of deaths due to the recent onslaught of Typhoon Ulysses has increased to 73 as of Tuesday, according to the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council (NDRRMC). A total of 24 people were injured while 19 others are still missing in Region II, CALABARZON, Bicol Region, and the Cordillera Administrative Region, the NDRRMC said in its latest situational report. A total of 3,052,049 persons or 727,738 families from Regions I, II, III, CALABARZON, MIMAROPA, V, NCR and CAR have been affected by the typhoon, of which, 70,784 families or 283,656 people are being assisted in various evacuation centers. Damage to agriculture has reached P2.7 billion and damage to infrastructure was placed at P5.2 billion. A total of 39,808 houses were also damaged. The agency has recommended to President Duterte to place the entire Luzon under a state of calamity after three consecutive typhoons wreaked havoc on the island.
Group expresses concern over recent killings of lawyers | Manila Bulletin – An organization of lawyers on Tuesday, Nov. 17, expressed concern over the recent killings of their fellow members of the bar. “There have been just way too many deaths among our own ranks and the biggest irony is that we cannot even get justice ourselves,” said National Union of Peoples Lawyers (NUPL) president Edre Olalia said in a statement. Olalia issued the statement in response to the deaths of Atty. Eric Jay Magcamit and Manila Judge Maria Teresa Abadilla this month. The NUPL said that, with the deaths of Abadilla and Magcamit, there are now of 52 lawyers who have been killed under the administration of President Duterte. “Regardless of the proximate cause, real motive and whole circumstances of the brazen killing of the Manila trial court female judge and of the young Palawan lawyer that must be established credibly, we are distressed once more by these violent deaths that befell our colleagues in the profession,” he said. Olalia believes that the government should have done a better job in ensuring the safety of lawyers and solving attacks against them.
Industries warn of 1.4M job losses | Malaya Business Insight – Business groups yesterday warned job losses could top 1.4 million if the current incentives are diminished, stunting further the country’s growth made worse only by the ongoing new coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. While all agree to a looming version of the Corporate Recovery and Tax Incentives for Enterprises (CREATE) in the Senate, they believe any changes to the incentive will lead to mass exodus of existing investors and opportunity losses that would aggravate the current state of industries already hit by the pandemic. The business groups — Semiconductor and Electronics Industries of the Philippines Inc. (SEIPI), the Information Technology Business Process Association (IBPAP), the Joint Foreign Chambers and the Philippine Ecozones Association yesterday made a last-minute appeal to Congress to pass a competitive package that offsets the high cost of operating in the Philippines, which is 30 percent more than in Vietnam. Dan Lachica, SEIPI president, said a transition period offered under option 2 of Sen. Ralph Recto in CREATE will ensure investors will stay put. But he cautioned if incentives are not competitive past that, “it will be an open season.”
