News Roundup 25 April 2021
Apr 25, 2021 • 4 min Read
Philippines inches closer to 1 million COVID-19 infections with 8,162 new cases | PHILSTAR.COM – The country’s total count of COVID-19 infections moved closer to a million on Sunday as officials reported 8,162 additional cases. Today’s new numbers continued to be of significant increase under a surge that began last month. It pushed the total count to 997,523.
- Active cases: 77,075 or 7.7% of the total
- Recoveries: 20,509, bringing the number to 903,665
- Deaths: 109, or now 16,783 in total
After week of accusations, NTF-ELCAC says it supports community pantries | PHILSTAR.COM – The national government’s red-tagging task force vowed to back the community pantries it earlier accused, without basis, of being spurred by the communist insurgency. National Security Adviser Hermogenes Esperon confirmed in a ONE News report that a ‘gag order’ was placed on Lt. Gen. Antonio Parlade and Presidential Communications Undersecretary Lorraine Badoy following their wild claims on the community pantries put up around the country to feed the hungry. “I have earlier asked the two spokespersons to desist from issuing further statements on the community pantries. The official stand of the NTF-ELCAC is to support and encourage bayanihan/community pantries,” Esperon is quoted by ONE News as saying. Esperon himself is a member of the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict, whose spokespersons Parlade and Badoy have been on the receiving end of criticism over their comments for the past week. The two have been unyielding in their accusations that the organizers of community pantries are linked to the communist insurgency. Parlade even went as far as likening Ana Patricia Non, who put up the first pantry in the country, to Satan. It was red-tagging that prompted Ana Patricia Non, who put up the first community pantry in Maginhawa, to close up shop for the day out of fear for her volunteers’ safety. Other community pantries have also reported incidents of red-tagging on social media and attempts from authorities to profile them. The NTF-ELCAC’s sudden support for the community pantries comes after the NTF-ELCAC’s gaffes reignited calls to defund the anti-communist task force by lawmakers. At least five senators have publicly expressed the desire to reallocate the taxpayer money going to the task force, which has been caught in a lie on more than one occasion.
Nancy Binay to support resolution censuring Parlade over ‘stupid’ remark | INQUIRER.NET – Senator Nancy Binay on Sunday expressed her willingness to support the resolution seeking to censure National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-Elcac) spokesperson Lt. Gen. Antonio Parlade Jr. This comes after Senator Franklin Drilon said he will be filing a resolution against Parlade for his “disrespectful” statements against senators. “May basehan naman ang pag-file ni Senate Minority Floor Leader ng censure against General Parlade dahil alam naman natin ang mga binitawan niyang statements laban sa Senado,” said Binay in an interview over dzRH. (The Senate Minority Floor Leader has a basis for filing the censure against General Parlade because of the statements he made against the Senate.) “At the end of the day, we need to protect the institution,” she added. Parlade made the remarks against the Senate after a number of senators pushed to defund NTF-ELCAC amid the red-tagging of the organizers of community pantries.
Robredo thanks supporters for lugaw drive on her birthday | Manila Bulletin – Vice President Leni Robredo said that her supporters gave away more than 30,000 bowls of lugaw (rice porridge) during her birthday last Friday, April 23. Her supporters called the “National Lugaw Day” in reference to trolls calling her “Lugaw Queen” because her supporters sold porridge to support her vice presidential campaign in 2016. Speaking on her weekly radio show, Robredo said she appreciated the gestures by her supporters because the lugaw feeding program was not promoting a certain candidate for a certain position. She earlier asked her supporters not to put her name or face on the bowls of lugaw and instead just focus on helping their fellowmen. “Gusto nating maipaalam sa kanila na sobrang appreciated natin ‘yung effort kasi ito pagpapakita ng suporta pero hindi naman talaga nagpopromote ng isang kandidato. Ang natutulungan talaga iyong communities kasi ngayon sobrang grabe ang dami ng nagugutom (We want to let them know that we appreciate the effort because this is showing support without promoting a candidate but they’re really helping the communities because now, there’s a lot of people going hungry),” she added. The vice president turned 56 on Friday but she was under home quarantine because she was exposed to a close-in security who tested positive to COVID-19. She has tested negative twice to an RT-PCR test but her doctors advised her to complete the minimum 10-day quarantine.
