News Roundup 20 October 2021
Oct 20, 2021 • 4 min Read
Philippines’ COVID count up by 3,656 more cases | PHILSTAR.COM – The Philippines on Wednesday posted 3,656 new coronavirus cases to bring its overall count of infections to 2,735,369. Today’s numbers active cases up by 3,424 from the 63,637 on October 19. DOH said two laboratories did not submit screening results. “The low number of reported recoveries and deaths today are due to technical issues with COVIDKaya,” DOH added. “Additional recoveries and deaths shall be reflected in the case bulletin in the following days.”
- Active cases: 67,061 or 2.5% of the total
- Recoveries: 228 bringing the number to 2,627,331
- Deaths: 5, or now 40,977 overall
DOJ told: Matrix on ‘drug war’ review ‘barely scratched surface’ | PHILSTAR.COM – The Free Legal Assistance Group has called on the Department of Justice to proceed to prosecute the police officers already found liable in “war on drugs” operations that resulted in deaths. The FLAG also said that the released DOJ review of 52 cases “barely scratches the surface and is grossly insufficient and inconsistent with the government’s commitments under international law to provide effective review of cases involving alleged extralegal killings.” The DOJ on Wednesday released a 21-paged matrix, which included docket numbers, names of suspects, dates and places of incidents and the review panel’s observations on each case. Records of these cases have been forwarded to the National Bureau of Investigation for case build-up and possible filing of criminal complaints against the cops involved in the operations. But the FLAG noted that the initial expanded review of thousands of “drug war” cases was trimmed down to the original 52 cases. President Rodrigo Duterte raised that these records are not public documents as they may involve national security issues — a context missing in the DOJ statement, the civic lawyers added. “The review thus fails to provide a comprehensive and meaningful assessment of the real extent of the violation of human rights committed during the implementation of the Duterte administration’s so-called ‘war on drugs,’” they also said. “It does not provide useful information to assist in making the offenders accountable; nor does it provide comfort or solace to the families of the victims of those killed in the name of Duterte administration’s so-called ‘war on drugs,’” FLAG added.
Health workers want higher health budget for 2022, release of COVID-19 benefits | INQUIRER.NET – The Alliance of Health Workers (AHW) staged a protest on Wednesday to press senators to increase the Department of Health’s (DOH) proposed budget for 2022 as well as the immediate release of COVID-19 benefits. “We urge the honorable senators to scrutinize the DOH budget and prioritize the health and safety of health workers and the people,” said Jose Reyes Memorial Medical Center Employees Union-Alliance of Health Workers president Cristy Donguines. “We hope that the senators will listen to the plight of the health workers and the people whose livelihoods have been ruined and their health and safety at risk due to the COVID-19 pandemic,” she added. Moreover, the frontliners also questioned why the DOH has not yet released 70 percent of their allowance. “DOH kept on saying that they have already released these benefits, but where is it now? We call on Secretary Duque and the rest of the DOH officials to stop deceiving the health workers and the public. Enough of your lies and incompetence,” Donguines stated. They also expressed their anger at the lack of funding for their COVID-19 benefits in the proposed health budget for 2022. “We are outraged because when it comes to health, protection, safety and welfare of health workers and the people, the allocated budget is very inadequate,” the group said. “And yet, we found out that a huge amount worth P42.7B was discovered in the DOH-PS DBM-Pharmally as COVID-19 anomaly,” it added.
Diokno says review of only 52 deaths in war on drugs ‘grossly insufficient’ | Manila Bulletin – Human rights lawyer and senatorial candidate Chel Diokno slammed the review on the 52 cases of deaths during police anti-narcotics operations in the country, saying it fails to provide the real extent of human rights violation during the deadly war on drugs. “The review of just 52 cases barely scratches the surface and is grossly insufficient and inconsistent with the government’s commitments under international law to provide effective review of cases involving alleged extralegal killings,” Diokno said in a statement on Wednesday, Oct. 20. Diokno, who serves as the national chairman of the Free Legal Assistance Group (FLAG), stressed that reviewing only those cases submitted by the Philippine National Police (PNP) and its Internal Affairs Services (IAS) “fails to provide a comprehensive and meaningful assessment of the real extent of the violation of human rights” committed during the war on drugs. “It does not provide useful information to assist in making the offenders accountable; nor does it provide comfort or solace to the families of the victims of those killed in the name of the Duterte administration’s so-called ‘war on drugs’,” Diokno said.
