Good day. Here are the stories for The Manila Times for Tuesday, August 29, 2023.
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READ: Printing of BSKE ballots complete
THE printing of additional official ballots for the Barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan Election is 100 percent complete, the Commission on Elections (Comelec) said on Monday, the start of the election period. Comelec Commissioner Rey Dulay, commissioner in charge for the October 30 polls, said the additional ballots are intended for the new voters who registered from December 2022 to January 2023. Also, additional ballots were printed for areas that conducted plebiscites, including Carmona and Baliwag (cityhoods), the creation of the provinces of Maguindanao del Norte and Maguindanao del Sur, as well as the additional 10 barangay (villages) that have been transferred to Taguig City. Dulay said the poll body finished printing the more than 92 million official ballots for the initial voters list as early as March 2023.
READ: Classroom shortage DepEd's big challenge
DESPITE the shortage in classrooms and other problems that usually hound the opening of classes, School Year 2023-2024 will start today, Aug. 29, 2023, in public schools. Based on the latest data from the Department of Education's (DepEd) Learner Information System Quick Count, more than 22 million learners are enrolled for the coming academic year, with 19 million of them students in public institutions. Calabarzon had the most number of students with 3,446,304 learners, followed by Central Luzon with 2,527,661 and the National Capital Region (NCR) with 2,468,170. DepEd earlier said the number could still rise due to late enrollees.
READ: 'New' Dengvaxia cases filed before QC court
THE Department of Justice (DoJ) has filed 34 new Dengvaxia cases, with former Health secretary Janette Garin as the principal accused. Public Attorney's Office (PAO) chief Persida Rueda-Acosta and PAO-Forensics Division Director Erwin Erfe confirmed with The Manila Times that state prosecutors filed the new Dengvaxia cases before the Quezon City Regional Trial Court Branch 229 judge Maria Luisa Lesle Gonzales-Betic. The cases had the same charges filed before different Metropolitan Trial Courts but were dismissed for lack of jurisdiction, the PAO officials said.
READ: She can't be replaced: Marcos bids Ople goodbye
PRESIDENT Ferdinand Marcos Jr. on Monday led an emotional final farewell for Department of Migrant Workers Secretary Maria Susana "Toots" Ople, who passed away last week after battling breast cancer. Ople was hailed by the Chief Executive as someone who worked courageously and tirelessly for overseas Filipino workers and Filipinos in general.
READ: Gilas needs perfect game vs Italy
FOLLOWING Sunday's deflating loss to Angola, Chot Reyes knows that Gilas Pilipinas' fate to advance to the second round is beyond its control. But Reyes believes that Gilas, no matter how slim its chances of avoiding dropping to the classification phase, will just have to make a brave attempt at beating world No. 10 Italy when the two teams clash at the close of the 2023 FIBA World Cup group stage on Tuesday night, August 29, at the Smart Araneta Coliseum. Game time is 8 p.m. Filipinos are praying for a miracle and certainly a "perfect game," so to speak, in order to beat the Italians. The Philippines enters the game with a 0-2 record, no thanks to an 87-81 defeat to the Dominican Republic on opening night last Friday, before blowing an 11-point second quarter lead en route to falling to Angola, 80-70, last Sunday.
SPORTS: Clarkson: 'We're gonna keep fighting for y'all'
TWO games in and Gilas Pilipinas still could not give the home fans a much-deserved victory in the FIBA Basketball World Cup. Back-to-back frustrating losses isn't going to dampen Jordan Clarkson's resolve, with the Utah Jazz star saying that he and his teammates are determined to win for the Filipino fans. on 7-of-22 field goal shooting. Clarkson, who made up for his inefficient shooting with seven assists and three rebounds, admitted that losing to Angola after leading the African country, 28-17, was a tough pill to swallow. But they can't dwell on it. Clarkson said Gilas needs to make adjustments as they are in a must-win situation when they face Italy on Tuesday, August 29. A loss to the powerhouse Italian (1-1) squad will end the Gilas' hopes of advancing to the second round.
BUSINESS: Debt servicing surges to P907.9B in first half
Over to business, the national government's debt servicing nearly doubled in the first half due to a significant rise in amortizations, data released by the Bureau of the Treasury showed. Debt payments surged by 98.08 percent to 907.93 billion pesos for the January-June period from 458.36 billion pesos a year earlier, with amortizations more than tripling to 625.47 billion pesos from 201.14 billion pesos.
READ: Opinion and editorial
Antonio Contreras, Yen Makabenta, and Orlando Mercado are today's front page columnists. Contreras tackles the upcoming school opening, Makabenta hits out at romancing the wrong sport, while Mercado weighs in on the recent traffic situation.
Today's editorial talks about the controversial new travel guidelines. Read the full version in the paper's opinion section or listen to the Voice of the Times.
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