Good day. Here are the stories for The Manila Times for Monday, December 30, 2024.
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READ: 177 perish in South Korea plane crash
A Jeju Air plane carrying 181 people from Thailand to South Korea crashed on arrival Sunday, smashing into a barrier and bursting into flames, leaving 177 confirmed dead. A bird strike and adverse weather conditions were cited by authorities as likely causes of the crash that flung passengers out of the plane and left it almost completely destroyed, according to fire officials. Video showed the Jeju Air plane from Bangkok landing on its belly at Muan International Airport, skidding off the runway as smoke streamed out from the engines, before crashing into a wall and exploding in flames. South Korea's fire agency said Sunday that the death toll had risen to 177, with just two people rescued and hopes of finding more survivors fading.
READ: PH polls not truly representative – analysts
The need for an anti-dynasty law and the absence of a robust political party system took the spotlight during the Town Hall: Preview of the 2025 Elections, hosted by The Manila Times in collaboration with DZRH. Political analyst and professor Antonio Contreras of the University of the Philippines Los Baños School of Environmental Science and Management questioned whether next year's elections would provide true representation.
READ: Cambodia pardons 13 Filipino surrogate moms
Cambodia has pardoned and sent home 13 Filipino women who were jailed over a scheme to become surrogate mothers, an outlawed practice in that country, the Department of Foreign Affairs said on Sunday. They were among 24 foreign women detained by Cambodian police in September and convicted and sentenced to four years in prison on December 2 for attempted cross-border human trafficking. The women and three of their babies were sent home to Manila early Sunday and taken to a government shelter for trafficking victims, the Department of Social Welfare and Development said in a statement.
READ: EduAKSyon among preferred party-list groups
Eduaksyon, a party-list that promotes educational reform, emerged as one of the preferred choices in the 2025 midterm elections, the latest Social Weather Stations survey showed. The survey, conducted from Dec. 12 to 18, placed Eduaksyon in the 20th spot among 156 party-lists gunning for a seat in the House of Representatives in the 2025 elections. Eduaksyon advocates the reduction of the standard four-year college curriculum to three years in a bid to streamline education and make it more accessible and efficient for Filipino students.
BUSINESS: Net hot money flows positive in November
Short-term foreign investments turned positive in November, the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas reported late Friday, hitting a net inflow of $96.59 million. The investments — registered with the central bank through authorized agents and also known as hot money because these can be moved quickly elsewhere to maximize profits from interest rates —reversed from a $529.68-million net outflow in October. The result, however, was lower than the $671.77-million net inflow recorded a year earlier.
SPORTS: PH football team guns for finals berth in Asean Cup
In sports, the Philippine men's national football team eyes a repeat performance as it battles defending champion Thailand in the second leg of the 2024 Asean Mitsubishi Electric Cup semifinals on Monday, Dec. 30, 2024. The game, however, will be played in at the Rajamangala National Stadium in Bangkok, Thailand. The Philippines claimed the first leg, 2-1, at the Rizal Memorial Football Stadium in Malate, Manila last Friday. That win snapped the country's 52-year winless drought against the seven-time Asean champions. The last time the Philippines scored a victory against Thailand was during the Jakarta Cup in 1972.
READ: Opinion and editorial
Fr. Ranhilio Aquino and Francisco Tatad are today's front page columnists. Aquino talks about the start of the Jubilee Year for Catholics, while Tatad wonders if the Church should now declare Rizal and Gomburza as Christian martyrs.
Today's editorial says climate crisis 'supercharging' global heating.
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