Good day. Here are the stories for The Manila Times for Friday, February 23, 2024.
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READ: Lone bidder bags vote machine deal
THE Commission on Elections has awarded to the joint venture led by Miru Systems of South Korea the 17.9-billion-peso leasing contract for 110,000 automated counting machines that will be used in the 2025 elections. The Comelec en banc awarded the contract to Miru, the lone bidder, through a unanimous vote last Wednesday. The contract also requires the Miru group to provide 104,345 ballot boxes, 2,200 laptops and printers, the paper for printing 73,881,894 ballots, and a system for ballot verification.
READ: Labor group backs P150 legislated pay increase
FOLLOWING the Senate's plenary approval of a proposed 100 peso legislated wage increase, the country's biggest labor organization has urged the House of Representatives to pass its own 150 peso wage hike measure. The Trade Union Congress of the Philippines on Thursday pushed for the passage of House Bill 7871, or the Wage Recovery Act. H.B. 7871 is pending in the House Committee on Labor and Employment, but the House leadership has directed the panel to hold public hearings as soon as possible. In pushing for a 150-peso increase, the T.U.C.P. noted that even with the latest round of pay hikes approved by the Regional Tripartite Wages and Productivity Boards across the country's 17 regions, wages remain below the poverty threshold set by the Philippine Statistics Authority, and way off the family living wage estimated by the think tank IBON Foundation.
READ: Attend House probe, Quiboloy prodded
HOUSE lawmakers belonging to the Makabayan bloc chided Kingdom of Jesus Christ leader Apollo Quiboloy for saying that some women are "fighting" for his riches, and urged him instead to attend the House inquiry into his network, Sonshine Media Network Internationalon March 12. Quiboloy on Wednesday lashed out at what he said was the "persecution" he was being subjected to, and claimed that the United States Federal Bureau of Investigation, Central Intelligence Agency, and the State Department were out to assassinate him. He also said the women who testified during a Senate hearing that he raped them only wanted to get back at him for spurning their pleas for him to marry them.
READ: DSWD tops satisfaction rating in OCTA survey
THE Department of Social Welfare and Development chalked up the highest public satisfaction rating among government agencies in OCTA Research's 2023 fourth quarter survey. In the poll, conducted from December 10 to 14, the D.S.W.D. had an 86 percent rating in public satisfaction. It also ranked third in public trust with 82 percent. D.S.W.D. Assistant Secretary Romel Lopez on Thursday attributed the high rating to the department's "angels in red vests."
READ: Charter silent on voting method for amendments
SENIOR Deputy Speaker Aurelio "Dong" Gonzales Jr. on Thursday said the Constitution is silent on whether the House of Representatives and the Senate have to vote jointly or separately on amendments. The 1987 Constitution states any amendment to or revision "may be proposed by: (1) the Congress, upon a 3/4 vote of all its members; or (2) a constitutional convention. It also allows direct proposal of amendments by the people through initiative upon a petition of at least 12 percent of the total number of registered voters, "of which every legislative district must be represented by at least three per centum of the registered voters therein."
BUSINESS: SkyCable sale called off
P.L.D.T. Inc.'s planned purchase of ABS-CBN Corp.'s Sky Cable will no longer push through, both firms announced on Thursday. The P6.75-billion deal, the latest attempt by businessman Manuel Pangilinan to purchase the Lopez-owned cable business, was expected to have been completed next month. Competition authorities cleared the transaction in January and Sky Cable subscribers had already been notified that cable TV services would end on Monday, February 26. No explanation was given. In separate disclosures, P.L.D.T. and ABS-CBN only said that they had "mutually decided not to proceed with the sale of Sky Cable to P.L.D.T. under the Sale and Purchase Agreement signed by and among the parties in March 2023." ABS-CBN said that Sky Cable's cable TV services would continue and that its internet broadband service, SKYFiber, "remains unaffected." The deal was expected to expand P.L.D.T.'s broadband reach and allow ABS-CBN to rationalize its business and pay off debts.
SPORTS: Barroca, Aguilar are PBA All-Stars skippers
Over to sports, Magnolia's veteran guard Mark Barroca and Barangay Ginebra's athletic big man Japeth Aguilar are set to skipper their respective squads after topping the 2024 P.B.A. All-Star fan balloting. By getting the most fan votes for this year's All-Star Game set in Bacolod City next month, Barroca and Aguilar get to choose their players for the pro league's midseason festivities. The 37-year-old Barroca and Aguilar, both former members of the original Gilas Pilipinas team under Rajko Toroman, will have the chance to choose from the pool of 27 players, who were selected by fans, coaches, the media and the host city.
READ: Opinion and editorial
Rigoberto Tiglao and Francisco Tatad are today's front page columnists. Tiglao looks into six facts about the EDSA Revolution, while Tatad says the country should stop sinning.
Today's editorial says the country's doping issue could tarnish its sporting legacy. Read the full version in the paper's opinion section or listen to the Voice of the Times.
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