Good day. Here are the stories for The Manila Times for Thursday, December 26, 2024.
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READ: Veloso, family savor Christmas reunion
SHE waited for more than a decade, and on Christmas Day Wednesday, Mary Jane Veloso finally had her reunion with her family. The momentous event took place at the Correctional Institution for Women in Mandaluyong City, where Veloso has been detained since she arrived in the country from Indonesia. Veloso was arrested in Indonesia in 2010 for carrying 2.6 kilograms of heroin in her luggage. She was convicted of drug trafficking and sentenced to death. Following a repatriation agreement between Jakarta and Manila, Veloso returned to the Philippines last Dec. 18 to await the Marcos government's decision on her fate. The group of 20 relatives, including Veloso's two sons, traveled from Nueva Ecija for the reunion. They arrived at the correctional facility around 7:30 a.m. and were allowed to stay with Veloso until 3 p.m. No media coverage was allowed on Veloso's request.
READ: Christmas rainy, but incident-free
PERSISTENT rain kept many Filipinos indoors on Christmas Day, muting the holiday festiveness, and the Philippine National Police (PNP) reported no untoward incident across the country. The traditional nine-day dawn Masses that ended Tuesday were "generally peaceful," PNP spokesman Brig. Gen. Jean Fajardo told reporters on Wednesday. On Christmas Day, the police would focus on securing transportation and commercial hubs, she said. Scattered rain fell on Metro Manila and most parts of Luzon beginning Tuesday and most of Wednesday due to the convergence of the hot and cold air called the shear line, the Philippine Atmospheric Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration (Pagasa) said.
READ: Palace won't pick a fight with Imee
MALACAÑANG is choosing not to respond to criticisms from Sen. Imee Marcos regarding the impending enactment of the 2025 national budget. The senator compared the decision of her brother, President Ferdinand Marcos Jr., to sign the spending measure to "a thief in the night before [the] New Year," citing its many contentious provisions. It includes the 1.113 trillion peso allocation for the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH), which is higher than the 925 billion peso budget for education — a clear violation of the Constitution, Marcos said. The Constitution states that education should receive the highest allocation in the General Appropriations Act.
READ: House OKs bill on cost-free delivery of relief goods
A MEASURE seeking a cost-free transport delivery of relief goods to areas declared in a state of calamity has passed the third reading at the House of Representatives. House Bill 10924, or the Free Transportation of Relief Goods Act, also seeks to require local government unit executives of disaster-hit areas to take charge of distributing these relief goods to remote areas in their localities, as well as the granting of tax incentives to private logistics firms for delivering relief goods free of charge.
BUSINESS: Govt spending improved in Nov
DESPITE the series of storms that battered the country, most government agencies still ramped up their budget spending, with the utilization rate up from a year earlier. According to the 2024 report on the utilization of Notices Cash Allocation (NCA), the national government, local governments and state-owned enterprises utilized 4.26 trillion pesos out of the total 4.52 trillion pesos worth of NCAs issued by the end of July. This resulted in 258.24 billion pesos remaining as unutilized funds. The utilization rate was higher than the 93 percent rate recorded in the same period last year but remained at the same level recorded in October.
SPORTS: Young PH weightlifters bag 25 medals in Asian tilt
THE Philippine national weightlifting team ended its campaign at the 2024 Asian Youth and Junior Weightlifting Championships, taking home 25 medals, five of which were gold. They also took home 10 silver and 10 bronze medals. Aldrin Colonia and Jhodie Peralta won three gold medals combined. Colonia won the country's first two gold medals in the men's 49-kilogram youth division in the snatch (84 kg) and the total lift (184 kg), while Peralta got her gold medals in the women's 55 kg youth division through the snatch (84 kg) and the total lift (184 kg). Both had a silver medal in their respective events, with Peralta at the clean and jerk and Colonia at the snatch, losing the gold to fellow Filipino Eron Bores, who lifted 97 kg.
READ: Opinion and editorial
Antonio Contreras and Danton Remoto are today's front page columnists. Contreras looks into the controversies surrounding the 2025 national budget, while Remoto discusses leaving an organization he founded.
Today's editorial commemorates 20 years since the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami. Read the full version in the paper's opinion section or listen to the Voice of the Times.
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