News Roundup 23 February 2022
Feb 23, 2022 • 4 min Read
Robredo’s pitch to capture Cebu votes: Comprehensive jobs plan for all sectors | INQUIRER.NET – Vice President Leni Robredo is all set to visit Cebu again on Thursday, carrying her comprehensive jobs proposal in hopes of getting the support of the country’s most vote-rich province. Robredo’s media bureau said on Wednesday that the presidential candidate will proceed to Cebu province after a two-day tour of areas in Northern Mindanao, bringing her “Hanapbuhay Para sa Lahat” plan which seeks to promote inclusive growth by empowering all sectors of the economy. Last December 10, Robredo presented this plan in a press conference, vowing to provide assistance to different industries and help small businesses by focusing on areas the country is strong at — technology, manufacturing, maritime, and ecotourism. Robredo is set hold several meetings and rallies, starting from a townhall meet with a fisherfolk group in Talisay City’s Barangay Tangke by 11:15 a.m. She will then meet members of the Robredo People’s Council and other sectors and supporters at the St. Scholastica’s Academy in Talisay, Cebu, before visiting towns of Argao and Toledo. Robredo’s visit to Cebu will culminate in a program at the high school campus grounds of Southwestern University in Cebu City, where she will be accompanied by her running mate Senator Francis Pangilinan and some members of her core senatorial slate. This is Robredo’s first visit to Cebu City during the campaign season, but last December 2021, she went to the southern city to discuss matters with various industries, including the business process outsourcing (BPO) sector. She promised to help BPO workers exercise their rights come election day, given that most of the shifts of call center agents and other BPO industries are in conflict with voting hours.
Martial law torture victim Etta Rosales relives horror as dictator’s son rises | PHILSTAR.COM – Ferdinand Marcos Junior’s quest for the Philippine presidency has Loretta Rosales recoiling in horror remembering the nightmare she went through standing up to his late father’s brutal rule. Tortured and gang-raped by the elder Marcos’ troops under martial law in the 1970s, the former history professor, now 82, told AFP she fears history will repeat itself. “I don’t want this to happen again to my people,” said Rosales, an activist turned politician who has asked the government to disqualify the younger Marcos, nicknamed “Bongbong”, from the May 9 poll. She fears he would take after his late father, who shut down Congress and other democratic institutions as well as media outlets while ruling by decree. Bongbong, 64, is the clear leader in the polls, running on a campaign that steers public discourse away from the crimes of his father’s dictatorship while preaching unity and mapping a path out of the pandemic. Amnesty International estimates the late strongman’s security forces either killed, tortured, sexually abused, mutilated or arbitrarily detained about 70,000 opponents, according to its Philippine vice chairperson Aurora Parong. Rosales took part in street protests during the period as an activist with the Humanist League, a group aligned with the Philippines’ Communist Party that was the only serious opposition after Marcos crushed most opponents. In 1976 she was secretly arrested and taken to an unmarked detention house, the former teacher said. Boiling-hot candle wax was poured on her arms and she was waterboarded as well as strangled with a belt. Her abusers delivered electric shocks to her fingertips and toes, leaving her trembling uncontrollably, and stripped off her clothes, she told AFP. “Then they started playing protest songs that we sang at our street marches, to taunt you, to dehumanise you,” she recounted. Rosales said her torturers wanted her to lead them to Jose Maria Sison, founder of the Communist Party which had begun waging a Maoist armed insurgency, as well as her fellow activists.
PH keeps record of below 2K COVID-19 cases for 5 straight days | Manila Bulletin – The Department of Health (DOH) on Wednesday, Feb. 23, logged 1,534 new cases of coronavirus disease (COVID-19)—the fifth straight day that the Philippines has been recording less than 2,000 cases. Since Feb. 14, the number of fresh coronavirus disease (COVID-19) cases has stayed below 3,000. The country has recorded a total of 3,655,709 cases since the COVID-19 pandemic began in 2020. Of this number, only 1.5 percent or 55,449 are still being treated. The DOH noted that 50,258 patients have mild symptoms, 2,811 are moderate; 1,426 are severe; 652 are asymptomatic; while 302 are in critical condition. Likewise, another 2,729 recoveries were announced, bringing the survivors’ count to 3,544,283. There were 201 more patients who were confirmed to have died because of COVID-19. The death toll jumped to 55,977 The number of new COVID-19 cases in the Philippines is still on a downward trend, said the DOH.
