News Roundup 25 December 2023
Dec 25, 2023 • 5 min Read
US-Canada military center ‘tracks’ Santa for 68th year | INQUIRER.NET – WASHINGTON–A joint US-Canadian military monitoring agency continued this year its decades-long Christmas tradition of tracking Santa’s whereabouts, helping children around the globe find out when his reindeer-powered, present-filled sleigh would be coming to town.
A 3-D, interactive website at www.noradsanta.org showed Santa Claus and his reindeer on their imagined worldwide delivery route, allowing users to click and learn more about the various cities along the way.
The Santa tracker presented by the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) dates to 1955, when a Colorado newspaper advertisement printed a phone number to connect children with Santa but mistakenly directed them to the hotline for the military nerve center.
To avoid disappointing the little ones, NORAD’s director of operations at the time, Colonel Harry Shoup, ordered his staff to check the radar to see where Old Saint Nick might be and update the children on his location.
When not spreading holiday cheer, NORAD conducts aerospace and maritime control and warning operations — including monitoring for missile launches from North Korea, something that may have been on Santa’s mind this year as he passed over, with the most recent ICBM test just days ago.
Sixty-eight years later NORAD was continuing its tradition of setting up a temporary call center out of its Colorado headquarters to answer children’s burning questions.
A photo posted by the group on Facebook showed rows of people answering phones, some in uniform and others wearing red Santa caps.
Some top-level US dignitaries — namely President Joe Biden and wife Jill Biden — joined in on the holiday action.
“This evening, the President and First Lady participated in the North American Aerospace Defense Command Santa tracking calls with children and families across the country,” the White House said in a statement.
Full Story at: US-Canada military center ‘tracks’ Santa for 68th year | Inquirer News
9 NPA rebels killed in Bukidnon clash | INQUIRER.NET – ILIGAN CITY — Nine New People’s Army (NPA) rebels were killed in an armed encounter on Christmas day with government troops in the hinterlands of Malaybalay City, Bukidnon, a top regional Army official said.
Major General Jose Maria Cuerpo, commanding general of the Army’s 4th Infantry Division, said the rebels appeared to be preparing for a gathering in time for the founding anniversary of the Communist Party of the Philippines on Tuesday.
Cuerpo added that the soldiers also recovered eight firearms in the encounter site.
No soldier was hurt in the clash, Cuerpo further said.
This encounter occurred amid the unilateral ceasefire declared by the Communist Party of the Philippines, which the military did not recognize.
Story at: 9 NPA rebels killed in Bukidnon clash | Inquirer News
Marcos orders identification of services that can be devolved to LGUs | PHILSTAR.COM – MANILA, Philippines — President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. has ordered national government agencies to list the functions and services under its mandate that should be devolved to local government units.
As part of the government’s devolution transition plan, Marcos cited the need to define the primary services and functions that should be turned over to LGUs before coming up with the schedule of implementation, which will also be based on each LGU’s capacity.
“Should the LGUs lack the funds to implement the functions and services, the National Government should have a program to assist them,” Marcos said, according to the Presidential Communications Office release.
PCO reported that Marcos also ordered the Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG) to come up with a list of basic functions and services that the LGUs should be performing based on their Devolution Transition Plans.
The National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) has also been ordered to conduct a “sensitivity analysis” to determine the economic benefits that can be gained from the government’s investments, “which include the functions and services to be performed by the LGUs.”
Marcos’ economic managers have also been tasked to “recommend ways to better implement a phased-in devolution, including its timeline based on LGU capacity.”
Full Story at: Marcos orders identification of services that can be devolved to LGUs | Philstar.com
Authorities prevent repeat of deadly clash in Pikit, Cotabato | PHILSTAR.COM – COTABATO CITY — The police and military are initiating measures to avert possible escalation of hostilities between two Moro groups armed with unlicensed assault rifles that clashed in Pikit, Cotabato on Saturday, exacting fatalities on both sides.
Major Gen. Alex Rillera, commander of the Army’s 6th Infantry Division, ordered on Monday the 602nd Infantry Brigade to help local officials in Pikit diffuse the tension between the group of Sindato Karim, who is chairman of Barangay Lagunde in the municipality, and their adversaries, Basit Nando and his followers.
“We are supporting the peacekeeping efforts of the police and local leaders there,” Rillera told reporters on Sunday.
Nando and his men opened fire at Karim and his companions while they were scattering gravel on a stretch of a farm-to-market road in Barangay Lagunde, sparking a deadly gunfight.
The Pikit Municipal Police Station and the Police Regional Office 12 have separately confirmed that two followers of the incumbent barangay chairman Karim were killed in the ensuing encounter that also left three companions of Nando dead.
The municipality of Pikit has frequently been hitting the news owing to the never ending deadly gun attacks in its barangays since 2020. More than 60 people had since been killed in bloody incidents in the area, all unsolved.
Full Story at: Authorities prevent repeat of deadly clash in Pikit, Cotabato | Philstar.com
