News Roundup 28 November 2021
Nov 28, 2021 • 3 min Read
Robredo lauds AFP for independence, help during pandemic | PHILSTAR.COM – Amid criticisms over her supposed support for the government’s controversial anti-insurgency task force, Vice President Leni Robredo on Sunday hailed the Armed Forces of the Philippines for, according to her, preserving its independence as an institution. This comes after Robredo held a courtesy visit to the AFP’s national headquarters where she met with top military officials to discuss defense issues in the Philippines. Speaking in her weekly radio show aired over dzXL Sunday morning, the Vice President said that the military played a key role in her office’s pandemic response initiatives over the coronavirus-induced community quarantines. “Personally, I’m very appreciative of the AFP. Because even if it is not perfect, until now, it maintains its independence as an institution. It doesn’t let itself be used as an instrument,” she said in mixed Filipino and English. “We are always thankful that amid the pandemic, our partnership with the AFP is very strong. We were able to distribute many PPE sets and medical supplies all over the Philippines largely with their help.” Robredo drew flak earlier this weekend after she said that she supported the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict’s mandate. In earlier statements, she had expressed support for the idea of abolishing the red-tagging task force. According to a Rappler report, her spokesperson has clarified that Robredo still wants the controversial task force abolished.
SWS: 45% of Filipino families felt poor in 3Q of 2021 | PHILSTAR.COM – Almost half of Filipino families feel poor as of the third quarter of 2021, while only a fifth feel “not poor,” new survey results by the Social Weather Stations suggest. In the latest findings of the pollster published late Saturday night, 45% of Filipino families rated themselves as mahirap, while 34% rated themselves as borderline poor and 21 percent rated themselves as not poor. The survey also found that the self-rated “food-poor” are 30% of families, the borderline food-poor are 44%, and the Not Food-Poor are 26%. These figures are a slight improvement from the 48% of self-rated poor families in the last survey in June 2021. However, more Filipinos now feel Borderline Poor compared to the 23 percent in June, and fewer Filipinos rated themselves as not poor from the 23% then. The Third Quarter 2021 Social Weather Survey conducted face-to-face interviews of 1,200 adults with sampling error margins of ±3% for national percentages and ±6% for Metro Manila, Balance Luzon, the Visayas, and Mindanao.
Pharmally execs set to be transferred to Pasay City Jail on Nov. 29 – Senate sergeant-at-arms | INQUIRER.NET – Barring any hitches, Pharmally Pharmaceutical Corp. executives Mohit Dargani and Linconn Ong are expected to be transferred to the Pasay City Jail for detention on Monday, Nov. 29, Senate sergeant-at-arms Rene Samonte said Sunday. This came after Senate President Vicente Sotto III earlier confirmed that he has already signed the order to send Dargani and Ong to the Pasay City Jail for detention after they again failed to provide the documents needed in the Senate blue ribbon committee probe. According to Samonte in a text message to INQUIRER.net, Dargani and Ong are “expected to be transferred tomorrow Monday, Nov. 29.” Samonte said that the transfer will be conducted before 4 p.m. tomorrow or around noon after they will report a negative antigen test for COVID-19.
DOH logs 838 more COVID-19 cases | Manila Bulletin – For the fourth consecutive day, the country logged below 1,000 cases of coronavirus disease on Sunday, Nov. 28. The country’s running total of cases stood at 2,831,807 after 838 more cases were detected. Of the total, 16,630 are still receiving treatment, as shown in the latest case bulletin of the Department of Health (DOH). Forty-seven percent of the active cases have mild symptoms, 7.1 percent have no symptoms, 6.5 percent were in critical condition, 15.2 percent were severely ill, while 23.36 percent have moderate symptoms. Another 1,217 patients recuperated. These cases brought the total number of recoveries to 2,766,816 or 97.7 percent of the overall case count. There were also 156 more fatalities, raising the country’s COVID-19 death count to 48,361 or 1.71 percent of the case total.
