News Roundup 26 July 2021
Jul 26, 2021 • 3 min Read
No stranger to persecution, the Church braves Duterte’s threats and tirades | PHILSTAR.COM – The Catholic Church in the Philippines has always had complicated relations with government, but in the Duterte years, it found itself speaking out on the “drug war” and consoling victims’ families. That meant facing the ire of a firebrand for a president, braving insults and threats, and surviving sedition charges. One would be mistaken to think, however, that the centuries-old institution in the country is a stranger to persecution. But perhaps no administration after the dark days of Martial Law went so much on the offensive with the church as that of Rodrigo Duterte’s. Against the grain and against the tide, the Catholic Church has endured difficulties in Duterte’s term. A new leader at the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines suggests church officials will not stop speaking out in the president’s crucial and remaining months in office. Duterte’s first year began with a vocal leader at the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines, whose strongly-worded remarks on the drug campaign reverberated across the Philippines, where many identify as Catholic. Government put the number of those killed in “drug war” operations at 8,000, but rights groups said the toll could be as high as 30,000. Lingayen-Dagupan Archbishop Socrates Villegas called the killings a “reign of terror.” The church, he said, knows the drug problem should be stopped, but not at a great cost of lives. Fast forward to 2021, Duterte’s human rights record is not something to be proud of, said Fr. Jerome Secillano, executive secretary of the CBCP’s public affairs committee. “Because many were killed, you can’t boast of this to your people or to the world,” he said in Filipino at a July 21 roundtable with journalist Melo Acuna. “This is actually something the public and other institutions should be alarmed about.”
Active COVID-19 cases in PH reach 55,140 with 6,664 more patients | INQUIRER.NET – Active COVID-19 cases in the country are now at 55,140 as the Department of Health (DOH) reports 6,664 new cases. According to DOH, there are now 1,555,396 total confirmed COVID-19 cases in the country as of Monday. The DOH said 5,766 more recoveries raised the number of patients who have recuperated from the disease to 1,473,009. Meanwhile, 23 more deaths brought the death toll to 27,247. According to the health department, 13.4 percent of 45,369 people who were tested were found positive for coronavirus on Saturday.
The DOH said one laboratory was not operational on Saturday and eight laboratories were not able to submit their data on time. On average, the eight non-reporting labs contribute 2.3 percent of samples tested and two percent of positive individuals based on data in the last 14 days.
Kiko: We cannot afford another six years of Duterte presidency | Manila Bulletin – The Philippines cannot another six years of administration under a Duterte, opposition Senator Francis Pangilinan said on Monday, July 26. Pangilinan issued the statement as he disagreed with House Speaker Lord Allan Velasco and other administration allies that President Duterte’s six-year term is not enough to fulfill all of his programs, welcoming the Chief Executive’s possible bid for vice presidency in 2022. “The next six years will be critical. This 2022 [election] will determine [our fate] probably, [in] the next 20 years. And my position is, we cannot afford another six years under this administration,” Pangilinan said in an interview with ABS-CBN News Channel (ANC). “We cannot afford another six years of daily killings. We cannot afford another six years of strongman, iron-fist policies. And of course, we cannot afford another six years of subservience to China,” the staunch Duterte critic added. He continued: “Do we want this for the next six years?”
