Good day. Here are the stories for The Manila Times for Tuesday, December 17, 2024.
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READ: Veloso on her way home
Mary Jane Veloso, sentenced to death in Indonesia, was moved to capital Jakarta, before she is expected to fly home on Wednesday, after the government signed an agreement to repatriate her. Veloso was arrested and convicted in 2010 after a suitcase she was carrying was found to contain 2.6 kilograms of heroin. On Sunday, police officers picked her up from a women's prison in Yogyakarta before transporting her to another prison in Jakarta, more than 418 km away. From there, she will be flown back to the Philippines early Wednesday morning, I Nyoman Gede Surya Mataram, acting deputy for immigration and corrections coordination, told a press conference. She will travel home on a Cebu Pacific flight shortly after midnight on Dec. 18, he confirmed to reporters.
READ: Trust, approval ratings of top government officials decline
The approval rating of key government officials, including President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. and Vice President Sara Duterte, had a significant decline heading into the end of the year, Publicus Asia's Pahayag 2024 End-of-Year survey showed. Marcos' approval rating saw a steep drop to 33 percent, down from 43 percent in the previous quarter. His approval rating, meanwhile, rose to 38 percent. Vice President Sara Duterte, on the other hand, saw her approval rating decrease from 40 to 37 percent.
READ: Marcos justifies zero subsidy for PhilHealth
PRESIDENT Ferdinand Marcos Jr. on Monday justified the scrapping of the 74-billion-peso subsidy for the Philippine Health Insurance Corp. (PhilHealth), insisting that the agency has "sufficient funds to carry on." In a chance interview with reporters in Malacañang, Marcos noted that the state insurer has 500 billion pesos in reserve funds. The bicameral conference committee has decided to give PhilHealth a "zero budget" for 2025. The president said the money for the government subsidy lies idle in the bank under PhilHealth's account and is not being utilized — a big waste since the government could have used the funds for other programs. Marcos also faulted PhilHealth's "processing capacity," which only creates backlogs in the payouts to beneficiaries.
READ: DoH chief assures public PhilHealth has enough funds
However, the Department of Health (DoH) on Monday clarified that the Philippine Health Insurance Corp. (PhilHealth) has a budget for 2025. Health Secretary Teodoro Herbosa issued the clarification after Congress did not allocate a single centavo for the state insurer's budget. Herbosa noted that PhilHealth has a budget of 284 billion pesos and that only the government subsidy was removed.
READ: Poll ban won't affect DOLE aid programs
THE Commission on Elections (Comelec) has approved the Department of Labor and Employment's (DOLE) request to exempt from the election ban the implementation of nine social welfare and services projects worth 18.5 billion pesos. Comelec Chairman George Erwin Garcia agreed to the exemption following the endorsement from the poll body's Law Department, which said that the labor department has suffi ciently complied with the requirements of Rule IV of Comelec Resolution 11060. Resolution 11060 provides the rules and regulations on the ban on the release of disbursement or expenditure of public funds for social services and housing-related projects and issuance of treasury warrants and similar devices as provided under the Omnibus Election Code in connection with the 2025 midterm and Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM) parliamentary elections. Exempted from the election ban are the DOLE's Special Program for Employment of Students, Government Internship Program, JobStart Philippines Program, Adjustment Measures Program, Workers Organization Development Program, DOLE Integrated Livelihood and Emergency Employment Program (Dileep), Financial Assistance Program to Distressed Migratory Sugarcane Workers, Child Labor Prevention and Elimination Program, and EnTSUPERneur Program.
BUSINESS: Remittances hit $3.42B in October
Topping business, money sent home by overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) hit $3.42 billion in October, the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) reported on Monday, 2.7 percent higher compared to the year-earlier $3.33 billion. The amount was also higher than the $3.34 billion posted in September, but growth was the lowest in four months. October's result, the BSP said in a statement, was driven by "remittances from both land-based and sea-based workers." It brought cumulative remittances for the 10 months of the year to $31.49 billion, 3.0 percent higher than the $30.57 billion recorded in the comparable 2023 period. Money sent home via banks alone totaled $3.08 billion in October, 2.7 percent up from $3.0 billion a year earlier and 2.3 percent higher compared to September's $3.01 billion. Year to date, cash remittances were 3.0 percent higher at $28.30 billion from $27.49 billion.
SPORTS: Quiambao leaves La Salle to play in KBL
Over to sports, La Salle's Kevin Quiambao is headed to the Korean Basketball League (KBL) to play for the Goyang Sono Skygunners in his first professional step to pursue his NBA dream. Quiambao, whose UAAP men's basketball career just ended on Sunday in a 62-66 Game 3 loss to UP, announced the news in a Facebook post on Monday morning. On Sunday night, reporters asked Quiambao about his KBL stint but stayed mum on the topic, perhaps just processing the loss that he and the Green Archers just suffered. The 6-foot-6 forward, however, hinted that this is his final year with the Green Archers regardless of his next destination.
READ: Opinion and editorial
Antonio Contreras, Yen Makabenta, and Orlando Mercado are today's front page columnists. Contreras thinks Vice President Sara Duterte's impeachment can still proceed despite the upcoming 2025 elections, Makabenta asks who will regulate the poll surveys on the said polls, while Mercado talks about crime and capitalism.
Today's editorial looks into the mental health issues of the youth. Read the full version in the paper's opinion section or listen to the Voice of the Times.
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