News Roundup 18 September 2020

News and Updates

Sep 18, 2020 • 4 min Read

Philippines’ COVID-19 tally nears 280,000 with 3,257 new infections | PHILSTAR.COM – The Department of Health reported 3,257 additional infections taking the national caseload to 279,526. The total number of recoveries in the country increased to 208,790 after the DOH recorded 733 additional recovered patients. The fatality count, meanwhile, climbed by 47 to 4,830.

EU resolution ‘welcome step’ toward accountability, reckoning — Karapatan | PHILSTAR.COM – A human rights group welcomed the resolution of the European Parliament denouncing the “rapidly deteriorating” of human rights situation in the Philippines under President Rodrigo Duterte as it called on the international community to continue to stand with Filipinos. Karapatan called the resolution a “welcome step toward reckoning and accountability over the Duterte administration’s blatant disregard of its obligation to uphold human rights and civil liberties in the country.” The European Parliament adopted a resolution Thursday condemning the situation in the Philippines with 626 votes in favor, seven against and 52 abstentions. “Domestic mechanisms have been ineffective and outright failing in bringing the perpetrators of these gruesome crimes to justice,” Cristina Palabay, Karapatan secretary general, said Thursday. “These attacks cannot continue and the European Parliament’s resolution is a strong statement from the international community that there would be consequences for these abuses,” Palabay added.

‘Go ahead:’ Palace dares EU to revoke PH’s tariff perks over human-rights violations | INQUIRER.NET – Malacañang on Friday dared European Union lawmakers to “go ahead” with their push to revoke the Philippines’ tariff perks for Filipino products. Due to “seriousness of the human-rights violations” in the Philippines, European lawmakers sought for the revocation of Generalized Scheme of Preferences Plus (GSP+) which gives the country the privilege of exporting zero-duty merchandise to the member states of the EU. The GSP+ scheme covers over 6,200 products from the Philippines. In a resolution, European Union lawmakers called on “the European Commission, in the absence of any substantial improvement and willingness to cooperate on the part of the Philippine authorities, to immediately initiate the procedure which could lead to the temporary withdrawal of GSP+ preferences.” Roque then sought for Philippine ambassadors’ help in Europe to tell the “truth” about the country’s human-rights situation.

Include construction of hospitals, health facilities in ‘Build’ program – Recto | Manila Bulletin – Senate President Pro Tempore Ralph Recto on Friday urged the Duterte administration to include in its “Build, Build, Build” program the construction of hospitals and other health facilities. In a statement, Recto lamented the “microscopic, one-percent” share of the health sector in the government’s infrastructure spending plan for next year.  “A kind of budget prioritization that turns a blind eye to the health facility shortages the pandemic has laid bare. This is pandemic denialism,” he said. Recto said that of the some P1-trillion capital outlay component of the P4.506-trillion proposed 2021 national budget, P15.6 billion was allotted for the Department of Health (DOH). He further noted that of the P15.6 billion, P5.5 billion for the construction of primary health care facilities was listed as under the unprogrammed appropriations, “which means it can only be released if revenue targets are hit and if loans for the projects can be secured.” “Malamang uutangin pa (Likely, that will be a loan)” he said.

European Parliament backs Maria Ressa, ABS-CBN, seeks probe on slain activists | The Manila Times –The European Parliament once again expressed its “deepest concern” at the “rapidly deteriorating human rights situation in the Philippines under President Rodrigo Duterte” and called on his administration to “adopt and implement” a list of recommendations by the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights. In a copy of the Sept. 16, 2020 joint motion for a resolution on the situation in the Philippines released late Thursday night, the EU Parliament acknowledged the UN report of June 2020 as it “strongly condemns the thousands of extrajudicial killings and other serious human rights violations related to the so-called “war on drugs”. It called on the Philippine government to “put an immediate end to all violence targeting suspected drug offenders, and to disband private and state-backed paramilitary groups”. As in its previous statements, the European Parliament insists that the fight against illicit drugs “must be pursued in full compliance with due process of law, in accordance with national and international law, and with emphasis on public health”.