News Roundup 25 October 2020
Oct 25, 2020 • 4 min Read
Coronavirus recoveries pushed to 328,036, caseload now at 370,028 | PHILSTAR.COM – Health officials added 14,944 recoveries in its latest mass recovery Sunday, to go with 2,223 new coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) infections. Breaking the department’s streak of consecutive days that the number of new cases fell below 2,000, this brings their totals to 328,036 recoveries and 370,028 coronavirus cases recorded since the pathogen first emerged in December last year. In its latest case bulletin Sunday afternoon, the Department of Health also added 43 more casualties, bringing the virus’ death toll to 6,977. Accounting for total deaths and recoveries, there are still 35,015 active coronavirus cases in the Philippines at present.
1,743 quarantine violators still in jails | PHILSTAR. COM – At least 1,743 people remain in jails for violating quarantine rules. Data from the Philippine National Police (PNP) showed that as of Thursday, 1,597 are detained in Luzon, 94 in the Visayas and 52 in Mindanao. Those detained comprise .35 percent of the 486,190 people accosted since the government imposed a community quarantine due to the coronavirus disease 2019 or COVID-19 pandemic. A total of 123,994 quarantine violators have been detained since March. Chief Justice Diosdado Peralta had earlier expressed concern on the continued detention of quarantine violators, saying he would discuss the matter with Interior Secretary Eduardo Año. Peralta said a person arrested without a warrant should be delivered to judicial authorities within the periods provided under the Revised Penal Code. He asked Supreme Court Administrator Midas Marquez to verify if cases have been filed against those who are still detained.
De Lima cleared by PDEA, AMLC – lawyer | INQUIRER.NET – The prosecution’s witnesses from the Anti-Money Laundering Council (AMLC) and the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) had testified that they found no evidence linking Sen. Leila de Lima to drug trading at New Bilibid Prison (NBP), according to a lawyer for the detained senator. In a statement late on Friday, Boni Tacardon said AMLC financial investigator Artemio Baculi Jr. and PDEA digital forensic examiner Krystal Caseñas told the court that they did not find any transactions between the senator and the drug lords held at the national penitentiary. De Lima has been detained at Camp Crame since February 2017 on what she said were trumped-up drug charges as a reprisal for her investigation of President Duterte’s alleged human rights violations in his war on drugs that started when he was mayor of Davao City. Baculi and Caseñas were presented as witnesses for the Department of Justice at the resumption of the hearings of Criminal Cases No. 17-165 and 17-166—two of the three cases alleging conspiracy to commit drug trading against De Lima and several others. Friday’s proceedings at the Muntinlupa Regional Trial Court Branch 205 were done via teleconference. “[Baculi said] that even if De Lima’s name had been mentioned [in talks among drug lords], he never investigated the senator,” Tacardon said. On questioning by defense lawyers during Friday’s hearing, Caseñas admitted that there were no exchanges between Dera and De Lima related to any drug transaction. This was based on the messages and call logs extracted from the cell phones given to PDEA by the Bureau of Corrections (BuCor), she said.
COA warns suspension of P232.9-M equipment transaction made by PTV-4 | Manila Bulletin – The Commission on Audit has threatened to suspend the P232.97 million transaction made by the state-run broadcast station People’s Television Network Inc. in procuring information and communications technology equipment last year. In the 2019 annual audit report released recently by COA, the state audit agency also questioned the “legality, validity and propriety” of the payment of salaries of contractual employees amounting to P125.4 million for the year. Furthermore, COA said the PTNI, also known as PTV 4, lost P9.178 million in revenue from blocktime programs who were charged with rates that did not conform with the approved New Airtime Rate Card of PTNI and Programming Guidelines for Co-productions and Blocktimers. State auditors asked PTNI General Manager Katherine Chloe de Castro to hold liable the signatories of the various broadcast contracts that granted unauthorized discounted airtime rates to blocktimers.
Robredo under quarantine | The Manila Times – Vice President Maria Leonor “Leni” Robredo placed herself under quarantine after being exposed to a person who tested positive for the coronavirus disease 2019. “Dapat sana bukas Lucena kami, Tuesday dapat sana Caloocan kami. Pero na-expose ako noong Huwebes sa isang nag-positive so sumunod kami sa protocols (We’re supposed to be in Lucena tomorrow, on Tuesday we were supoosed to be in Caloocan. But I was exposed to an individual who tested positive so we followed the protocols),” Robredo said on Sunday in her weekly radio show BISErbisyong Leni. She added that all her meetings had to be held online.
