Good day. Here are the top stories of The Manila Times for Monday, July 22, 2024.
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READ: Marcos ratings up ahead of SONA
HEADING into his third State of the Nation Address (SONA) Monday, President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. enjoyed a bump in his trust and performance rating at 77 percent and 75 percent, the highest among top government officials in the national survey by the RP-Mission and Development Foundation (RPMD). Vice President Sara Duterte, who said she would stay away from the SONA today, had trust and performance ratings of 76 percent and 71 percent, the same survey showed. The latest Boses ng Bayan survey conducted among 10,000 adult participants from July 1 to 10 showed Marcos had the highest trust rating of 80.70 percent in Balance Luzon and his lowest at 70.16 percent in Mindanao, said Paul Martinez, RPMD executive director. The survey has a margin of error of +/-1 percent at a 95 percent confidence level, RPMD said. Newly installed Senate President Francis Escudero and House Speaker Martin Romualdez will open the joint session of Congress on Monday to listen to the President's SONA. The President will deliver the speech in the House's Plenary Hall at the Batasan Complex in Quezon City. In an interview during a public engagement in Apayao on July 19, the President said his speech "is finished" and that he was "just doing some fine-tuning" before delivering his report to the Filipino people. Marcos said he would state how the government was performing when it came to further ramping up the economy, addressing criminality, eliminating illegal drugs and responding to other threats being faced by the country.
READ: Shoal resupply missions to remain PH operations
THE resupply missions to troops on Ayungin (Second Thomas) Shoal will remain purely Philippine operations, the National Security Council (NSC) said Sunday after Washington vowed to "do what is necessary" to support them. The shoal, which hosts a tiny Philippine garrison stationed on a deliberately beached old warship, has been a focus of escalating confrontations between Chinese and Philippine ships in recent months as Beijing steps up efforts to push its claims to the entire South China Sea. A Filipino sailor lost a thumb on the latest June 17 clash when Chinese coast guard members wielding knives, sticks and an axe foiled a Philippine Navy attempt to resupply its troops. NSC spokesman Assistant Director General Jonathan Malaya said that as far as the RoRe (rotation and resupply mission) was concerned, it would purely be a Philippine operation utilizing Philippine ships, personnel and leadership. Malaya's remarks came after White House National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan said the United States "will do what is necessary" to ensure the Philippines can continue to resupply its troops on the contested atoll
READ: Yulo, Marcial, Delgaco open PH campaign in Paris.
DEBUTING Joanie Delgaco and returning Olympians Carlos Yulo and Eumir Marcial will start the Philippine 100th anniversary of participation at the Olympics in Paris, France, on July 27.Delgaco, the Philippines' first-ever female rower to make the Games, will be the first to see action in the quadrennial meet. The 26-year-old Delgaco will race in the women's single sculls heats at 3 p.m. (Manila time) at the Vaires-sur-Marne Nautical Stadium, with the hopes of entering the semifinals set on July 29. Meanwhile, gymnast Yulo and boxer Marcial will have their contests running simultaneously starting at 9:30 p.m. The 24-year-old Yulo will compete in the men's artistic gymnastics individual all-around qualification at the Bercy Arena. Yulo, the 2019 floor exercise world champion and 2021 vault king, is one of the Philippine bets to win a medal. The 10-time Asian Championships gold medalist finished fourth in vault at the Tokyo Games three years ago. On the other hand, Marcial will box in the round of 32 in the men's light-heavyweight division (80 kg) at the North Paris Arena. The 28-year-old Marcial claimed a bronze medal in the middleweight division in Tokyo. Philippine Olympic Committee (POC) president Abraham Tolentino hopes the three will give the 22-athlete Philippine delegation a great start to the Games.
READ: Inflation top concern of Filipinos – survey
CONTROLLING inflation remained the biggest national concern of Filipinos, a recent survey by OCTA Research found. The second-quarter survey had 1,200 respondents and was conducted from June 26 to July 1. Controlling the increase in prices of basic goods and services was the top concern of 65 percent of the respondents and the top concern across major areas and income classes, OCTA Research said in a statement on Sunday. Access to affordable food like rice, vegetables and meat was the next biggest concern, with 40 percent. It was followed by increasing/improving wages or salaries of workers" (33 percent), creating more jobs (33 percent), and reducing poverty (28 percent). In Mindanao, 71 percent consider controlling the increase in prices of basic goods and services as an urgent national concern. In the Visayas, 51 percent considered access to affordable food the top concern. The number of respondents concerned about improving/increasing workers' pay was "relatively higher" in the National Capital Region (NCR, also known as Metro Manila) and the Visayas at 36 percent, compared to Balance Luzon and Mindanao. Among socioeconomic classes, the concern about controlling the increase in prices of basic goods and services is highest across Classes D (66 percent) and E (65 percent). In comparison, almost half of the respondents in Class E (48 percent) were more worried about access to affordable food than other socioeconomic classes. Compared with other socioeconomic classes, more respondents in Classes ABC (40 percent) considered job creation a pressing concern.
Topping Business
READ: ADB: Bangko Sentral to start cutting in H2
INTEREST rate cuts are likely to be ordered before the year ends once inflation is firmly within target, a senior Asian Development Bank (ADB) official said last week. ADB Country Director Pavit Ramachandran told reporters on Friday that the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) was expected to ease its monetary stance in the second half of this year when inflation stabilizes within its 2.0 to 4.0 percent target range. The central bank's benchmark rate currently stands at an over 17-year high of 6.5 percent, the result of 450 basis points of increases beginning May 2022 after inflation started surging in the wake of Russia's invasion of Ukraine. BSP Governor Eli Remolona Jr. has been saying since May that rate cuts could start in August, ahead of the US Federal Reserve, given improvements in the inflation outlook. The Manila-based ADB has retained its inflation forecasts for this year and next year at 3.8 percent and 3.4 percent, respectively, both within the 2.0- to 4.0-percent target. The only upside risks to the inflation outlook are "higher transportation charges, higher world oil prices, and disruptive impacts of La Niña and other severe weather events on food prices," Ramachandran said.
In Sports
READ: Eala, pal clinch ITF Spain doubles crown
FILIPINA tennis star Alex Eala and France's Estelle Cascino were named women's doubles champions at the International Tennis Federation (ITF) Women's 100 Tennis Tournament in Vitoria-Gasteiz, Spain. During Saturday's doubles finals, Eala and Cascino defeated the pair of Lia Karatancheva of Bulgaria and Diana Marcinkevica of Latvia in a 3-set finish, 6-3, 2-6, 10-4. Despite being dominant in the first set, Eala and Cascino struggled in the second set to their rivals, but quickly recovered and dominated over Karatancheva and Marcinkevica in the extra frame. This was the second time the Filipino French tennis pair won a doubles title together, after winning their previous title at the ITF Open 3C Seine-et-Marne women's doubles tournament in Cascino's native France last March. It is also Eala's third ITF doubles title in 2024, after also winning the ITF Nuc-Deccan Women's Doubles Tournament in Pune, India with Latvian Darja Semenistaja.
READ: Opinion
The Times editorial, is about how the recent global outage exposed the vulnerability of IT networks. Read the full version on print or digital or listen to the Voice of the Times. Featured columnists on the front page are Rigobeto Tiglao, Fr. Ranhilio Aquino and Francisco Tatad. Tiglao said President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.was a 2.0 version of the late president Benigno Aquino III; Aquino writes about La'lo's bid for cityhood and Tatad on US presidential candidate Donald Trump.
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