News Roundup 23 April 2021
Apr 23, 2021 • 3 min Read
With 8,719 new infections, COVID-19 cases in the Philippines climb to 979,740 | PHILSTAR.COM – The Philippines on Friday recorded 8,719 additional COVID-19 cases, bringing the total number of infections to 979,740.
- Active cases: 102,799 or 10.5% of the total
- Recoveries: 13,812, pushing total to 860,412
- Deaths: 159, bringing total to 16,529
Senator seeks full accounting of anti-communist task force’s P19 billion funds | PHILSTAR.COM – Senate Minority Leader Franklin Drilon on Thursday night reiterated his longstanding concern that the government’s red-tagging task force may be using its multibillion-peso funds in aid of the upcoming elections in 2022. Drilon urged Senate leadership to compel the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict to submit a quarterly report to Congress on the utilization of its P19 billion budget for 2021. “These are not small funds. Magagamit sa pulitika iyan (That can be used for politics),” Drilon said during an interview with One News’ “The Chiefs.” He added that the 2021 General Appropriations Act requires the task force’s implementing agencies to submit “quarterly reports on the utilization of funds and physical accomplishments” to the Office of the President, the Department of Budget and Management, and both chambers of Congress. This comes amid calls from several senators to defund the task force which recently spurred outrage by red-tagging community pantry organizers. Senators have also renewed their call on the Department of National Defense to dismiss Lt. Gen. Antonio Parlade Jr. as NTF-ELCAC spokesman because his appointment to the civilian post while still an active member of the military, as chief of its Southern Luzon Command, violates the 1987 Constitution.
Nancy Binay: Government’s COVID-19 response a ‘failure’ | INQUIRER.NET – The response of the administration of President Rodrigo Duterte to the COVID-19 pandemic is a failure, Senator Nancy Binay said Friday, as she called on the government to admit its inability to solve the problems caused by the health crisis. Binay made this remark when asked if she agrees that the emergence of community pantries shows the government’s supposed failure to properly deal with the pandemic. “Yes. It is a failure. The government response is a failure and I think the government needs to admit na hindi niya kayang bigyan ng solusyon ‘yung problema (that it cannot give solution to the problem),” she said in an interview with ABS-CBN News Channel. “Tingin ko nga kaya tayo nasa ganitong sitwasyon ngayon kasi there is always that denial that there is a problem, there is always that move to downplay the problem. Paano natin bibigyan ng solusyon ‘yung problema kung hindi natin tinatanggap na may malaki tayong problema?” she added. (I think we are in this situation because there is always that denial that there is a problem, there is always that move to downplay the problem. How can we provide a solution if we are not admitting that there is a huge problem?) Binay said the government should instead “appreciate and welcome” efforts of the public to help with the pandemic response, adding that the country can only solve the problems caused by the pandemic “if we all work together.”
‘Foul-mouthed, disrespecful’ Parlade slammed for calling senators ‘stupid’ | Manila Bulletin – “We will not stoop to his level.” Senator Joel Villanueva had this to say Friday, April 23, after Lieutenant General Antonio Parlade, Jr. called lawmakers “stupid” for pushing to defund the government’s anti-insurgency task force over its red-tagging and profiling of community pantry volunteers. “We’ll not stoop down to this level of pettiness. Name-calling will not put food on anyone’s table,” he said on Twitter. The Senate, he said, has the responsibility to ensure that government funds — the peoples’ money — are being spent for public interest. Villanueva pitched for the defundng of the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC), after Parlade, its spokesperson, likened Ana Patricia Non to “Satan’s apple”, in an attempt to justify their claim that organizers of community pantries are linked to communist rebels. It was Non who initiated the Maginhawa Community Pantry in Quezon City, which inspired several similar donation-driven efforts across the Philippines. Over 300 community pantries have sprouted in various regions of the country.
