News Roundup 24 October 2020
Oct 24, 2020 • 3 min Read
COVID-19 cases in the Philippines breach 367,000 | PHILSTAR.COM – After recording another 2,057 infections on Saturday, the health department said the national coronavirus caseload has topped 367,000. Of the total 367,819 infections recorded, 47,773 are classified by the Department of Health as active. The Philippines has also posted 313,112 recoveries. Meanwhile, the coronavirus death toll in the country rose to 6,934, after another 19 fatalities were logged by the DOH. This week, the daily recorded cases managed to stay below the 2,000 mark for four days straight — a streak which broke today — but it is unclear if this is a sign of progress or a result of the country’s bogged down testing capacity. While the government has long touted the country’s supposedly robust testing capacity, data paints a different picture.
Robredo partners with USAID, non-profit org to train unemployed, out-of-school youth | PHILSTAR.COM – Vice President Leni Robredo is teaming up with the US Agency for International Development and an education non-profit to give free technical-vocational skills and employability training to over 1,000 unemployed and out-of-school Filipino youth. Through its TrabaHOPE program, Robredo’s office “will co-sponsor the training needs of youth aged 18-30 years old who qualify for YouthWorks PH, USAID’s private sector-driven employability initiative with [the Philippine Business for Education],” the US Embassy in the Philippines said Thursday. “YouthWorks PH is a free technical-vocational training program for youth who are currently not studying, in training or employed,” the embassy added. According to the consulate, the combined P17 million commitment from the OVP, USAID, and PBEd will fund the training costs for YouthWorksPH participants until year-end. “We are grateful for this partnership with USAID and PBEd, which will allow us to open more doors for young people who may be supporting themselves and their families, especially during the COVID-19 crisis,” Robredo said.
Just keep quiet, Lorenzana tells Parlade, military | INQUIRER.NET – If security forces have no evidence against people they believe to have taken up arms against the government, they should just shut up. This was the advise of Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana to security officials amid the backlash over Lt. Gen. Antonio Parlade Jr.’s controversial remarks against celebrities Liza Soberano, Angel Locsin and Catriona Gray. “My thoughts about that is if there is no evidence yet, do not talk about it,” Lorenzana told reporters, adding that he will seek a meeting with other members of the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-Elcac). Lorenzana said he would ask for a meeting with Parlade, who is the NTF-Elcac spokesperson aside from being commander of the military’s Southern Luzon Command, and National Security Adviser Hermogenes Esperon to discuss the matter. “Although Elcac is a very good idea, it is not right to shotgun everybody. [We] should be selective. We should have evidence … Otherwise, just keep quiet,” the defense secretary said. “Because this brouhaha has already grown, I think we should talk about what should be done,” said Lorenzana, one of the 20 members of the NTF-Elcac, which is chaired by President Duterte himself with Esperon as vice chair.
SC to resolve petitions vs anti-terror law | The Manila Times – Supreme Court Chief Justice Diosdado Peralta on Friday gave his assurance that the petitions against the Anti-Terrorism Act would soon be resolved. Peralta said the Supreme Court is currently in the process of collating common and uncommon petitions before subjecting these to an oral argument, with the common issues to be represented only by one lawyer. He pointed out that the number of petitions, which now stands at 37, cannot be left as it is during the oral argument otherwise it would take the high court some time to render a ruling.
