Good day. Here are the stories for The Manila Times for Tuesday, October 31, 2023.
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READ: Killings, school burnings mar polls
AT least 10 people were killed and three schools were burned down in the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM) on Monday as millions voted in the Barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan Elections (BSKE). In Tuburan, Basilan, six people, one of them a barangay captain, were shot and hacked by attackers outside a polling precinct, police reported. In Datu Odin Sinsuat, Maguindanao del Norte, two people were gunned down, and five others were wounded in a clash between rival groups about an hour before polling centers opened. In Lanao del Sur's Butig town, a man running for barangay captain shot and killed his brother, who was his rival candidate. In Lanao del Norte, a woman was killed when a gunfight broke out after a van carrying a village captain and her supporters was stopped on a road by people backing her rival, the military reported.
READ: Comelec: Quick assumption of office for poll winners
PROCLAIMED winning candidates in the Barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan Elections can assume office the day after the voting. Commission on Elections (Comelec) Chairman George Erwin Garcia said on Monday the prompt assumption of office was the interpretation of the commission en banc in relation to the Supreme Court ruling that declared Republic Act 11935, the law that moved the B.S.K.E. from Dec. 5, 2022, to Oct. 30, 2023, unconstitutional. Garcia said in declaring R.A. 11935 unconstitutional, the Court allowed the holding of the polls on Monday, citing legal practicality and necessity, although it was silent on the term of office of the winning candidates. The Court merely mentioned that the next election "shall be held on the first Monday of December 2025 and every three years thereafter."
READ: More OFWs from Israel arrive home
THE fourth batch of 60 overseas Filipino workers from war-torn Israel arrived home Monday. The group is made up of 32 hotel workers, 28 caregivers and two infants, bringing to 122 the number of repatriated Filipinos since October 18. Following the arrival of the third batch on October 23, Department of Migrant Workers Officer in Charge Hans Cacdac said that there were 120 more O.F.W's who had requested repatriation.
READ: Govt trying to locate missing Filipinos in Israel
THE government is exerting efforts "to locate" the two missing Filipinos in Israel whom the government assumed to be among those kidnapped by Hamas militants in early October, Foreign Affairs Secretary Enrique Manalo said. In a chance interview following his meeting with visiting Dutch Foreign Minister Hanke Bruins Slot, Manalo was asked about the possibility that there are Filipinos among the Hamas hostages.
BUSINESS: GOCC subsidies up in September
Topping business, subsidies to government-owned and -controlled corporations rose in September from a month earlier, Treasury bureau data showed. Based on the agency's latest cash operations report, the budgetary support of 21.624 billion pesos for G.O.C.C's last month was 12.33 percent higher than August's 18.929 billion pesos. Year-on-year, the amount was 10.09 percent down from September 2022's 23.652 billion pesos. Year-to-date, subsidies to G.O.C.C's rose by 12.6 percent to 137.12 billion pesos from last year's 122.25 billion pesos. Government financial institutions received nothing in September, likewise, in the same month last year. In the previous month of this year, it received 137 million pesos.
SPORTS: Creamline aims for 4-0 start in PVL
In sports, defending champion Creamline aims to stretch its unbeaten record to four wins when it battles winless Farm Fresh on Tuesday, October 31, in the 2023 P.V.L. 2nd All-Filipino Conference at the FilOil EcoOil Center. The Cool Smashers, currently tied on top of the standings with the Petro Gazz Angels at 3-0, take on the struggling Foxies at 4 p.m. The Chery Tiggo Crossovers and the Gerflor Defenders, meanwhile, collide at 2 p.m. while the Cignal H.D. Spikers and the Akari Chargers lock horns at 6 p.m. to cap the triple-header.
READ: Opinion and editorial
Antonio Contreras, Yen Makabenta, and Orlando Mercado are today's front page columnists. Contreras talks on greenwashing and the appropriation of buzzwords, Makabenta discusses the United Nations fighting crises on three fronts, and Mercado talks about post-election blues.
Today's editorial thinks the heat is on for the return of the old school calendar. Read the full version in the paper's opinion section or listen to the Voice of the Times.
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