Good day. Here are the stories for The Manila Times for Thursday, August 5, 2021.

READ: Gatchalian to run for VP

SEN. Sherwin Gatchalian on Wednesday declared his plan to run for vice president next year if Davao City Mayor Sara Duterte-Carpio chooses him as her running mate. The senator revealed his in- tention to seek the country's second highest post in a television interview, mak- ing him the second from the Nationalist People's Coalition (NPC) to seek the post. Senate President Vicente "Tito" Sotto 3rd, NPC chairman, had earlier declared his desire to run for vice president with longtime ally Sen. Panfilo "Ping" Lacson as his running mate.

READ: Is Unihealth Parañaque Hospital and Medical Center also a 'pawnshop'?

Times chairman emeritus, Dr. Dante Arevalo Ang, looks into the Unihealth Parañaque and Medical Center in Sucat, Parañaque City over the way it charges its patients. Read a full version on the paper's print, digital and online editions.

READ: Lockdown to save lives – Concepcion

PRESIDENTIAL Adviser for Entrepreneurship Jose Maria "Joey" Concepcion 3rd on Wednesday said placing Metro Manila under a two-week lockdown this month was needed to save lives and protect earnings in the fourth quarter amid the continuing threat of the Delta variant of the coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19). In a virtual town hall meeting, Concepcion maintained that the enhanced community quarantine (ECQ) to be enforced in Metro Manila from Aug. 6 to 20, 2021 was be the key to contain the spread of the coronavirus cases driven by the Delta variant.

READ: 'Delta impact felt in cities, provinces'

THE presence of the highly infectious Delta variant of Covid-19 has made an impact in the country as more than half of the provinces and highly urbanized and independent component cities had registered a surge in the number of cases as well as health care facility utilization, an official of the Department of Health said. At Wednesday's "town hall" meeting, Epidemiology Bureau Director Dr. Alethea de Guzman said local transmission of the variant necessitated the need to address the increase in cases and monitor the utilization rate of health care facilities, which were among the factors that prompted authorities to tighten community quarantine protocols.

READ: Marcial, Paalam set sights on gold medal fight

MIDDLEWEIGHT Eumir Marcial and flyweight Carlo Paalam take on separate rivals in the semifinals of men's boxing at the Tokyo Olympics on Thursday, August 5, at the Kokugikan Arena. Marcial, who advanced to the medal rounds by scoring back-to-back first round wins, takes on former tormentor Oleksandr Khyzhniak of Ukraine at 2:03 p.m. (Philippine time). Paalam, on the other hand, battles hometown bet Ryomei Tanaka, who scored a controversial win over Yuberjen Rivas Martinez of Colombia in the quarterfinals. After his 4-1 win over Martinez, Tanaka was wheeled out of the arena because of exhaustion. The Paalam-Tanaka bout begins at 1:30 p.m. (Philippine time) Both Filipino boxers are one win away from an assured silver medal and two wins away from the gold.

READ: Go pushes hiring of more contact tracers

SEN. Christopher Lawrence "Bong" Go on Wednesday requested President Rodrigo Duterte and concerned agencies to hire 15,000 more contact tracers as the government prepares to implement another hard lockdown to curb the spread of the highly infectious Delta variant of the coronavirus disease. Go said hiring more contact tracers would fortify the government's pandemic response and at the same time, generate jobs.

READ: Lockdown to worsen unemployment problem – analysts

Analysts were pessimistic about the country's labor situation after the government revealed that many Filipinos were jobless in June. The trend of flatlining unemployment and high under- employment, according to ING Bank Manila senior economist Nicholas Antonio Mapa, shows a labor market straining under the weight of the recession, implying that the long-awaited Philippine economic recovery will be a long and bumpy ride.

BUSINESS: Peso likely to resume weaker bias in August

Over to business, despite returning to P49:$1 level at the end of July, the Philippine peso is likely to resume to a weaker tendency this month. This is what analysts from ING Bank Manila, Union Bank of the Philippines, and Rizal Commercial Banking Corp. (RCBC), told The Manila Times in an e-mailed response. According to ING Bank Manila senior economist Nicolas Antonio Mapa, investor sentiment will likely sour as the lockdowns will knock out growth prospects and could lead to a credit rating downgrade.

SPORTS: Pagdanganan stays cool on a hot Tokyo day

In other Olympic news, Bianca Pagdanganan of the Philippines kept her cool on a day when the temperature soared to the mid 30 Celsius, firing a two-under par 69 on Wednesday to keep the leaders in sight after the opening round of the Tokyo Olympics' golf competition. Keeping herself fresh with an ice pack and a fan in between shots, the 23-year-old Ladies Professional Golf Association (LPGA) campaigner birdied the first two holes to create momentum then kept her composure when the sweltering heat started to bear down on the Kasimugaseki Golf Club in Saitama.

READ: Opinion and editorial

Antonio Contreras and Yen Makabenta are today's front page columnists. Contreras talks about the "too many" community quarantines assaulting the IQ, while Makabenta discusses fully vaccinated Americans requiring masks once again.

Today's editorial talks about the Cooperative Development Authority's activities expanding under the leadership of Undersecretary Joseph Encabo. Read a full version on the paper's opinion section or listen to the Voice of the Times.

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For The Manila Times, this is Christian Crow Maghanoy reporting.