Good day. Here are the stories for The Manila Times for Saturday, May 21, 2022.
READ: Hidilyn retains weightlifting title
HIDILYN Diaz emerged the winner in a battle of Olympic champions to retain her title in the 55-kilogram weightlifting category Friday in the 31st Southeast Asian Games in Hanoi, Vietnam. Diaz's victory provided one of the three gold medals that added to the country's medal harvest for the day. The other two came from esports and judo. It also provided a bright note on a day when the Philippines slid to fifth place in the medal standings. Diaz, who gave the country's its first Olympic gold medal, in Tokyo last year, lifted 92 kg in the snatch and 114 kg in the clean and jerk for a total of 206 kg, 3 kilos more than the tally of 2016 Rio Olympics gold medalist Sanikun Tanasan of Thailand. Diaz was trailing Sanikun in the snatch after failing to clear 93 kg. The Thai then lifted 110 kg in her second attempt in the clean and jerk, but Diaz wiped out the Thai's lead by raising 114 kg in her first attempt. Sanikun tried to match the Filipino's lift but was unable to do so in her third attempt. Diaz tried to add the icing to her cake by going for a new SEA Games record of 121 kg. She failed but still managed a smile. Natasya Beteyob of Indonesia lifted 188 kg to finish third.
READ: Party-list winners' proclamation delayed
THE proclamation of the winning party-list groups will have to wait until the results of the special elections in Lanao del Sur on May 24 are canvassed. Commission on Elections (Comelec) Commissioner George Erwin Garcia said there will be a delay because computing the allocation of party-list seats in the House of Representatives is complicated. Poll-related violence in Tuburan, Lanao del Sur forced the Comelec to declare a failure of election in that town. Special elections were scheduled for May 24. The commission was hoping to finish canvassing the party-list returns by next week and proclaim the winners immediately after. That seems unlikely now. Garcia said allocating party-list seats is problematic because there is no specific provision in the "Party-List System Act" (Republic Act 7941) on how the allocation should be computed.
READ: Covid cases on the rise in Metro Manila
COVID-19 infections in Metro Manila went up by 19 percent during the week of May 13 to 19, the independent OCTA Research group reported Friday. OCTA said there were 71 cases a day during that week, higher than the 59 cases during the previous week. OCTA senior fellow Dr. Guido David also reported an increase in the average daily attack rate (ADAR), to 0.50 cases per 100,000 population from 0.42. The reproduction number has also gone up to 0.9 from 0.76, David said. A reproduction number of less than one indicates that viral transmission among infected individuals is still under control. Despite the rise in cases, the positivity rate remained at 1.2 percent, and the health care utilization rate and the intensive care unit utilization also stayed under low risk. OCTA's indicators are different from that of the Department of Health (DoH), which relies on CovidActNow figures used by the Harvard School of Public Health. In a statement, the DoH said that the slight rise in cases did not translate to increased admissions or utilization rates. It also said Metro Manila is still classified as minimal risk since its two-week growth rate remained at -17 percent. The DoH reminded the public that to prevent another Covid surge, they should continue to follow the minimum health protocols and get themselves vaccinated and boosted.
READ: US to name warship after Filipino sailor hero
THE United States Navy will name one of its future destroyers after a Filipino sailor who rescued two fellow crewmen when their ship caught fire more than a century ago. In a tweet Thursday, US Secretary of the Navy Carlos Del Toro announced that the next Arleigh Burke-class destroyer will be named after Fireman Second Class Telesforo Trinidad, who joined the US Navy in 1901.
READ: PH stamps sovereignty over West PH Sea islands
THE Philippine Coast Guard (PCG) continues to expand the country's maritime domain awareness in the West Philippine Sea (WPS), this time by establishing command observation posts (COPs) on Likas Island, Lawak Island and Parola Island. Coast Guard Admiral Artemio Abu said the PCG's Task Force Kaligtasan sa Karagatan constructed a smart house and installed radio communications on the three islands. The construction was carried out with the largest Coast Guard contingent in the WPS putting up the five COPs, 30-foot long navigational buoys, on critical islands in the area from May 12 to 14. Abu said these COPs will optimize the strategic deployment of PCG assets by monitoring the movement of merchant ships in surrounding waters and communicating maritime incidents to the PCG National Headquarters in Port Area in Manila.
READ: Scholars, academics sign manifesto vs fake news
MORE than a thousand scholars and academics have signed the "Manifesto in Defense of Historical Truth and Academic Freedom" expressing their opposition to all forms of disinformation — fabrication, manipulation, deceptive rebranding and propaganda — on social media and other digital platforms.They claimed that the presumptive electoral victory of Ferdinand "Bongbong" Marcos Jr. and Sara Duterte-Carpio "signals an intensified struggle over historical knowledge and pedagogy, the erasure of traumatic personal and collective memories of plunder and human-rights violations under Martial Law, and unbridled myth-making about a so-called 'Golden Age' presided over by the conjugal dictatorship of Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos."In the manifesto, they pledged to combat all attempts at historical revisionism that distort and falsify history to suit the interest of the Marcoses and their allies and fortify their power.Similarly, they vowed to protect the integrity and independence of cultural institutions, including the Department of Education (DepEd), the Department of Science and Technology (DoST), the Commission on Higher Education (CHEd), the National Historical Commission of the Philippines (NHCP), the National Library of the Philippines (NLP), the National Archives of the Philippines (NAP), the National Commission on Culture and the Arts (NCCA), and state universities and colleges (SUCs).
BUSINESS: BSP sees growth under new govt
Over to business, the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) remains optimistic the Philippine economy would continue to grow even under the new administration. Because of the improved Covid-19 situation in the country, BSP Governor Benjamin Diokno is optimistic the second-quarter economic expansion will be much better than the faster-than-expected 8.3-percent gross domestic product (GDP) growth in the first three months of the year. Another reason for Diokno's optimism is that the country will experience a seamless transition of power, as the winning candidate has an overwhelming majority for the first time in history.
SPORTS: For safety, no drums allowed in CDC
In other sports news, the University Athletic Association of the Philippines (UAAP) cited safety and health reasons on why it decided not to allow drummers from performing in the Season 84 Cheerdance Competition (CDC) at the Mall of Asia Arena on Sunday. Drummers are usually an integral part of the CDC as they rev up the crowd during the event. The eight drum groups of the UAAP participating schools have released a statement on Thursday, appealing to the league for them to be allowed to perform on Sunday. UAAP president Emmanuel Calanog said that the UAAP board members will meet to discuss the said appeal.
READ: Opinion and editorial
Antonio Contreras and Danton Remoto are today's front page columnists. Contreras talks about new major players in the media block, while Remoto promotes his English version of the book Banaag at Sikat (Radiance and Sunrise).
Today's editorial calls on the government to exercise caution in consideration the expansion of mining. Read a full version on the paper's opinion section or listen to the Voice of the Times.
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This is EJ Gomez reporting.