Good day. Here are the stories for The Manila Times for Thursday, August 22, 2024.
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BANNER: 41 placed under quarantine in QC
PRESIDENT Ferdinand Marcos Jr. ordered the Department of Health (DoH) to closely monitor cases of mpox on Wednesday, as the Quezon City government put 41 close contacts of the first mpox patient under quarantine after he was found to have visited at least two establishments in the city. In a press conference, Mayor Joy Belmonte said the 33-year-old Filipino patient, not a resident of the city, had gone to a dermatology clinic and the AED Infinity Wellness Spa along E. Rodriguez Avenue in Quezon City. Citing initial information, Belmonte said the patient admitted that he had frequented similar spas in other cities. The doctor noticed skin lesions on the arms, face, trunk, back and other parts of the patient's body and immediately coordinated with the barangay to transport him to the Research Institute for Tropical Medicine to collect specimens. At the Palace, the President told Health Secretary Teodoro Herbosa to continue surveillance, especially of areas and people most vulnerable to the disease. Herbosa said the first mpox case reported by the Philippines this year was a mild variant, not the deadly strain sparking global alarm. The highly transmissible Clade 1b strain of the virus has killed hundreds of people in the Democratic Republic of Congo and has also been detected in Burundi, Kenya, Rwanda, Uganda and Sweden.
Heads will roll over Alice Guo 'escape' – Marcos
PRESIDENT Ferdinand Marcos Jr. vowed on Wednesday that "heads will roll" in connection with the departure of dismissed Bamban, Tarlac mayor Alice Duo from the country. In a statement posted on his official social media accounts, Marcos lamented how Guo's ability to slip out of the country "has laid bare the corruption that undermines our justice system and erodes public trust."
Comelec to release guidelines on certificates of candidacy
THE Commission on Elections (Comelec) will release next week the guidelines for the filing of certificates of candidacy (CoCs) for the 2025 national and local polls, which will be made public for the first time for the sake of transparency. Candidates can file their CoCs between October 1 and October 7, excluding October 6, a Sunday. September 30, on the other hand, is the last day for voter registration.
VP urged to name those telling her about impeachment plot
SEVERAL lawmakers on Wednesday prodded Vice President Sara Duterte to name the people who had told her that there was a plan to impeach her. Duterte on Tuesday said she has friends in the House of Representatives who said lawmakers were openly discussing her impeachment. At a press conference the following day, House Assistant Majority Leader and La Union 1st District Francisco Paolo Ortega V said there were no such talks.
DoH: Dengue cases up, but deaths low
WHILE the Philippines is experiencing an increasing number of dengue cases, the number of deaths due to the illness has remained low, the Department of Health (DoH) said. In a statement, it said there were 150,354 cases of dengue from Jan. 1 to Aug. 10, 2024, a 39 percent increase from the 107,953 cases reported in the same period last year. From July 14 to 27, dengue cases rose to 23,290, a 24-percent increase from the 18,784 cases during the June 30 to July 13 period.
BUSINESS: Govt infra spending rises to P612B in H1
Topping business, spending on infrastructure and other capital outlays picked up in the first half (H1) of this year as the government bolstered its infrastructure initiatives, Budget Secretary Amenah Pangandaman told reporters during the Kapihan in Manila Bay on Wednesday. Amid directives to increase expenditures to support economic growth, the amount spent for infrastructure projects rose to 611.8 billion pesos in the January to June period, 20.6 percent higher than 507.2 billion pesos logged in the same period last year. The improvement was largely attributed to the implementation of various road infrastructure programs and the completion of ongoing projects by the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) nationwide, as well as capital outlay projects funded under the Revised AFP Modernization Program of the Department of National Defense. In June alone, infrastructure spending rose to 139.7 billion pesos, 17.0 percent higher than the 119.4 billion pesos recorded in the same month last year.
SPORTS: Ruivivar going to Malacañang at last
Over to sports, Filipino American gymnast Levi Ruivivar will be going to Malacañang to meet President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. Jr. after all. In an Instagram story on Wednesday, Ruivivar posed for a picture at an airport in Los Angeles with a cap- tion: "Heading to Manila to meet the President!" Ruivivar, together with Aleah Finnegan and Emma Malabuyo, ended the 60-year absence of the Philippines in the Olympic women's gymnastics stage after competing in Paris. The 18-year-old made noise on social media a few days ago after saying that she was neither informed nor invited to Malacañang on August 13 and the heroes parade the following day unlike her fellow Filipino Olympians. In a press conference, Gymnastics President Cynthia Carrion-Norton explained that she was given last-minute notice about the events prepared for the Filipino Olympians and thus the non-invitation to Ruivivar as well as Finnegan and Malabuyo. The trio headed to the United States after competing in Paris albeit Finnegan and Malabuyo just arrived on August 15 to hold a two-day gymnastics clinic in Manila.
Antonio Contreras and Yen Makabenta are today's front page columnists. Contreras analyzes the "confused" Sen. Robinhood Padilla, while Makabenta thinks the country should write its own cultural policy and to build a competitive creative economy.
Today's editorial calls on Congress to act on the rightsizing bill. Read the full version in the paper's opinion section or listen to the Voice of the Times.
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