News Roundup 29 January 2022
Jan 29, 2022 • 5 min Read
Lowest since January 6: PH logs 17,382 COVID-19 cases, says DOH | INQUIRER.NET – The Philippines on Saturday reported 17,382 cases — which is the lowest daily infections since January 6 — to bring the caseload to 3,528,796, the Department of Health (DOH) reported. Saturday’s caseload is lowest since January 6 when 17,220 cases were reported. Of the total caseload, 213,587 or 6.1 percent are still tagged as “active cases” but most of them either have mild or no symptoms at 97.7 percent. Of the 17,382 reported cases on Saturday, 13,298 or 77 percent occurred within the recent 14 days or from January 16 – January 29. The top regions with cases in the recent two weeks from Metro Manila (1,520 or 11 percent), Region 4-A (1,426 or 11 percent) and Region 11 (1,331 or 10 percent). There are also 35,382 new recoveries to bring the total number of COVID-19 survivors to 3,528,796. The total number of deaths is now at 53,871 after 70 new mortalities were logged. The current positivity rate is now at 33.3 percent out of 56,447 tests.
Guanzon gives Ferolino until Monday to release reso on Bongbong Marcos’ DQ cases, or else | INQUIRER.NET – Commission on Elections (Comelec) Commissioner Rowena Guanzon gave fellow Commissioner Aimee Ferolino until Monday to release the resolution on the consolidated disqualification cases against presidential candidate Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. Guanzon said she will not reveal the name of the “influential and powerful” senator suspected to be behind the delay in the release if the resolution is issued on Monday. Guanzon is the presiding commissioner of the Comelec’s First Division, which is handling the disqualification cases against Marcos Jr. “Binibigyan ko lang sila hanggang Monday. Ilabas ninyo ang resolusyon, hindi ko ilalabas pangalan. Ilabas niyo lang,” Guanzon said when asked in a DWIZ interview about the identity of the senator. (I am giving them until Monday. Release the resolution and I will not reveal the name. Just release the resolution.) Guanzon earlier said the senator she was referring to was not Marcos Jr.’s sister, Senator Imee Marcos. Guanzon is set to retire on Wednesday, February 2, after serving seven years as a member of the Comelec. She said she will not retire quietly. “I am not going to retire quietly, kasi may problema tayo eh (because we have a problem),” the Comelec official said. “Anong kababalaghan ba ito at 19 days [hindi pa released]? Sobra nang abnormal ang delay na ‘yan. Kaya ako nananawagan sa publiko at sa kanya (Ferolino) na ilabas na niya bago ako magretire. Kung hindi, talagang totoo ang sinasabi ko na may conspiracy para hindi macount ang boto ko which is to DQ (disqualify) BBM (Marcos Jr.’s initials). Ayaw nilang ma-DQ si BBM,” she added. (What is happening? The decision is still not released after 19 days. This delay is too abnormal. That’s why I called on her to release the resolution before I retire. If not, my statement that there is conspiracy so that my vote will not be counted to disqualify BBM is true. They don’t want BBM to be disqualified.)
Makabayan says can deliver around 3M votes for Robredo-Pangilinan tandem | PHILSTAR.COM – Officials of the progressive Makabayan coalition said they are confident they can deliver roughly three million votes for presidential aspirant Vice President Leni Robredo and her running mate Sen. Francis “Kiko” Pangilinan in the elections. Makabayan co-chairperson Neri Colmenares said Saturday in a press briefing that historically, their coalition have carried three to 3.5 million votes in the past elections — a voting bloc which could help buoy the candidacies of Robredo and Pangilinan, who have yet to top surveys. “Naniniwala kami na made-deliver naman iyong pinakamalaking boto ng Makabayan bloc para doon kay Vice President Leni Robredo at kay Senator Kiko Pangilinan,” Colmenares said. (We believe that we will deliver the largest vote of the Makabayan bloc for Vice President Leni Robredo and Senator Kiko Pangilinan.) Colmenares said that while their coalition’s members have the freedom to choose who to vote for, this choice will certainly be informed by the platforms being carried by candidates. Robredo and Pangilinan have said through the vice president’s spokesperson, Barry Gutierrez, that they are willing to work with Makabayan regarding their 10-point common platform, which include a better response to the pandemic, ending contractualization and resuming peace talks with communist rebels. Makabayan announced that it is backing the candidacies of Robredo and Pangilinan during the campaign launch of 1Sambayan, where it was also revealed that Colmenares is part of the opposition coalition’s Senate slate.
Robredo says Marawi was Angat Buhay priority area even before siege: ‘’Talagang naunahan namin’ | Manila Bulletin – “Yes po.” This was presidential aspirant Vice President Leni Robredo’s response on Saturday, Jan. 29, to critics questioning her earlier remark that she and her team have been to Marawi since 2016, which was before the May 2017 siege. “Daming ingay. Bakit daw sabi ko 2016 palang nasa Marawi na kami. Naunahan pa daw namin ‘yung siege (There’s a lot of noise. Why did I say that we were in Marawi in 2016? We were there before the siege),” she wrote on Facebook. “Talagang naunahan namin (We were really there first),” Robredo stressed. This came as her critics lashed and laughed at her remark during the interview with Boy Abunda last Wednesday where she said that she has been working in Marawi since 2016. Bashers poked fun at her remark, even comparing her statement and the news clippings of the Marawi siege in May 2017. “Lanao del Sur was the poorest province at that time. 2016 palang (Since 2016), we already decided to adopt Marawi as one of our Angat Buhay priority areas. We decided to take it even further by launching Angat Buhay in Lanao del Sur to include 16 other towns,” Robredo explained. The leg work for these projects to happen started in 2016, a few months after she took office as vice president. Robredo shared that Angat Buhay, her office’s flagship poverty alleviation program, was formally launched on March 21, 2017, a few months before the siege in May of the same year. She added that the Office of the Vice President (OVP) immediately sent a permanent team to Marawi to do relief operations a few days after the siege. Robredo herself has been there several times while the siege was ongoing to oversee the concerns of the people in the evacuation centers. The Angat Buhay Village in Barangay Sagongsongan started turning over transitory houses to beneficiaries in 2018 and awarded housing units to displaced Marawi families in 2019.
