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(Kami) A customer left an emotional note on a Jollibee receipt at Countrymall Branch, Cebu, and it quickly went viral. It was shared by the Jollibee manager, Mechelle Centurias, on her Facebook account, admitting she was moved to tears.

The note clearly stated that the customer is eating his last meal in Jollibee because the next day, he would be starting his chemotherapy because he has Stage 4 cancer.

He said that his doctor told him that he only has three months to live.

“My Jollibee

Thank you sa 32 years. Karon akong last kaong nimo kay starting ugma mag sugod na akong chemotherapy. Naa kasi 4-stage cancer. My doctor said that I have 3 months to live na lang.

Once again, thank you my Jollibee. Until my next life. Aylabyu myJollibee.”

A part of what the Jollibee manager wrote was:

““I couldn’t hold my tears when I read this. One of our guests at Jollibee left this note at the back of his receipt. After silently eating at one corner of the store, he cleaned up his table, brought the tray at the claim area and left. Our dining crew saw the note written on his receipt and gave it to me. I thought it was a feedback from a dissatisfied customer but it wasn’t. It was a different ‘thank you’ message from someone who had his last Jollibee meal before his Chemotherapy for stage 4 cancer. He was sharing that his doctor gave him 3 months to live.””

Jollibee is one of the most popular fast food chains in the country. It has been a favorite destination of families for decades. The company has also expanded to other countries… Read More

(The Manila Times) THE government has allowed the holding of the coronation night of the Miss Universe Philippines 2021 from September 26 to October 1 in Bohol, Malacañang announced on Friday.

Palace spokesman Harry Roque Jr. said the Inter-Agency Task Force (IATF) for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF) reached the decision following a meeting on Thursday.

“The IATF approved the request of the Miss Universe Philippines to hold its grand coronation event in Bohol from Sept. 26 to Oct. 1, 2021, subject to health and safety protocols and approval of the Provincial Government of Bohol,” Roque said.

Thirty contestants were slated to compete, but Davao City’s Ybonne Ortega and Zamboanga’s Joanna Maria Rabe had to withdraw for health reasons.

In a Facebook post over the weekend, organizers announced changes in its schedule for pre-pageant activities.

The national costume competition was set on September 23, followed by preliminary interviews (September 24), the preliminary swimsuit and evening gown contests (September 26), and the last day of voting on the e-commerce platform Lazada (September 29).

“Mounting a safe pageant for all our stakeholders is our number one priority today. This is why we enhanced, even more, all of our safety protocols given our current situation,” the organizers said… Read More

(CNN Philippines) Metro Manila — The country reported 16,907 new COVID-19 infections on Saturday, bringing the nationwide tally to 2,470,175, the Department of Health (DOH) said.

The department’s latest case bulletin also showed that out of the total number of cases, 6.7% or 165,092 are active or currently sick. At least 81.3% of the active cases have mild symptoms, 13.3% are asymptomatic, 3.12% are in moderate condition, 1.6% have severe symptoms, and 0.7% are in critical condition.

The number of recoveries also rose to 2,267,678 – which is 91.8% of the COVID-19 count – with 27,120 new survivors.

Meanwhile, the death toll remained unchanged for the second straight day at 37,405 due to technical issues in the data repository COVIDKaya system. This would also mean fatality counts in succeeding reports will be higher due to backlogs, the DOH noted.

The agency also said it deleted 60 duplicate cases from the total, including 41 recoveries.

The tally excludes data from four laboratories that failed to submit their reports on time. These laboratories contributed an average of 0.7% of tested samples and 0.8% of positive individuals in the last 14 days, the DOH added.

The positivity rate or percentage of tested people with positive results further dropped from 24.2% based on tests on Sept. 22 to 23.6% based on 74,606 tests reported on Sept. 23.

The rate is the lowest following August 16 (23.2%) but is still within the critical level of above 20%. The percentage should be below 3% to indicate adequate testing, according to US nonprofit Covid Act Now. For the World Health Organization, a positivity rate of below 5% means the area already controlled the infection.

OCTA Research fellow Guido David said the latest case tally pulled the country’s COVID-19 reproduction number down to 0.98 and its one-week growth rate to -13%. Reproduction number refers to the number of people infected by a single case, and ideally should be one or less, as anything higher means there is still significant community transmission, medical experts have said.

Apart from the unchanged death toll, the DOH’s bulletin was delayed by an hour and the initial post had discrepancies in the figures. The agency later uploaded updated numbers – including changes to the active case count, and the total number of infections and recoveries… Read More

(BusinessWorld) A BILL which makes explicit the eligibility of private schools for tax relief during the pandemic has passed in the Senate on second reading.

Senator Pilar Juliana S. Cayetano, who chairs the Senate Committee on Ways and Means, on Tuesday sponsored Senate Bill No. 2407, as reported out from committee with some minor modifications. The measure amends Section 27(B) of the National Internal Revenue Code.

The amendment specifically makes private schools qualified to pay a temporarily lower tax rate to help them survive the economic crisis.

Their eligibility had initially been questioned by the Bureau of Internal Revenue, which ruled that only non-profit private schools were entitled to tax relief. This BIR ruling has since been withdrawn.

Senate President Pro Tempore Ralph G. Recto, a co-sponsor of the bill, noted that it was important to ensure that private schools, which have been severely affected by the pandemic, do not shut down permanently.

“The type of bailout through tax relief is more economical on the part of the government than letting private schools close, as the latter would trigger a migration of refugees to public schools whose education must now be shouldered by taxpayers,” he said.

The Corporate Recovery and Tax Incentives for Enterprises (CREATE) Act had provided for a concessionary tax rate of 1% for enterprises hit hard by the pandemic between July 2020 and June 2023. The withdrawn BIR ruling would have forced public schools to pay the regular corporate tax rate of 25%… Read More

(BusinessWorld) STOCKS posted gains on Wednesday as report from an independent research group showed the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) reproduction rate in the National Capital Region (NCR) continued to decline.

The Philippine Stock Exchange index (PSEi) went up by 9.53 points or 0.13% on Wednesday to close at 6,890.73, while the broader all shares index rose 21.58 points or 0.50% to 4,286.57.

“Market sustained its recovery today up 9.53 points, though off highs as investors’ confidence improve on news that the Philippines could possibly be in the homestretch of its battle against the spread of the COVID-19 Delta variant, especially in Metro Manila where the reproduction number has started to decline,” Papa Securities Corp. Equities Strategist Manny P. Cruz said in a text message on Wednesday.

“The minimal decline in Chinese markets that reopened today also aided the rally today,” Mr. Cruz said.

Fredegusto Guido P. David, a research fellow at the OCTA Research Group, said in a social media post on Tuesday that the reproduction number in the country’s capital slipped to 1.03 from 1.33 as COVID-19 infections in Metro Manila continue to decline.

The Health department logged 16,361 new COVID-19 infections on Tuesday, bringing total active cases to 171,142 and the country’s tally to 2,401,916.

Meanwhile, Chinese stocks fell on Wednesday, led by banking and consumer staples, while real estate shares jumped after developer Evergrande assured it could make a bond interest payment… Read More

(Inquirer) Another COVID-19 outbreak has been recorded in a religious facility in Quezon City, prompting the local government to create guidelines on ventilation for buildings and workplaces.

According to the Quezon City Epidemiology and Disease Surveillance Unit (QCESU), 25 of 59 individuals in the Christ the King Mission Seminary tested positive for coronavirus SARS-CoV-2, which causes COVID-19. The coronavirus-positive persons were nine priests and 16 staff of the religious facility.

But QCESU also reported that of the 25, 13 are still sick as 11 of them already recovered while a priest died of COVID-19 complications on Saturday, September 18.

Consequently, the Quezon City government placed two of the seminary’s buildings — Villa Cristo Rey and Fininman Building — under Special Concern Lockdown (SCL) from Saturday.

This brought the total number of religious facilities in the city that were put on SCL to four, the other three being the Stella Maris Convent since September 10; Religious of the Virgin Mary since September 14; and the Convent of the Holy Spirit since September 15.

The Quezon City government also announced its creation of guidelines on ventilation for buildings and workplaces to prevent and control the spread of COVID-19.

“We will send these guidelines to building administrators in the city so they will learn how to better retrofit their facilities and make these more resistant to virus transmission,” Mayor Joy Belmonte said in a statement… Read More

(GMA News) Manila Mayor Isko Moreno will run for president in Eleksyon 2022 while former senatorial candidate Willie Ong will be his running mate, Manila City Public Information Office confirmed on Tuesday.

“Confirmed,” Manila PIO chief Julius Leonen told GMA News Online when asked if Moreno will join the presidential elections in 2022. He also confirmed that Ong will be Moreno’s vice president.

In an interview with GMA News’ Sandra Aguinaldo, Moreno’s campaign manager Lito Banayo also confirmed the local chief executive’s presidential bid.

The formal announcement of the Moreno-Ong tandem will be held on September 22, Wednesday, Banayo added.

According to Banayo, Moreno chose Ong as candidate for vice president because the latter may help address the COVID-19 pandemic.

Moreno told the Manila City government officials to focus on serving their constituents after he made the announcement of his candidacy.

“Tuloy ang gobyerno. (The government is still here.) We’re still here. I’m going to have to do what I have to do as the Mayor,” said Moreno.

Ong earned his medicinal degree from De La Salle University, and is also a previous consultant for Department of Health.

“Itong tambalan na ito ay pinag-isipan nang mabuti. Ayaw namin na political marriage. ‘Yung nag tambalan kasi malakas sa ganitong probinsya sa ganitong rehiyon,” Banayo said.

(We thought about this for a long time. We don’t want a political marriage — wherein two candidates paired up for elections because they are strong in their provinces or regions.)

“Ang gusto kasi ni Mayor Isko Moreno yung makakatulong sa pamamahala. Lalo na ngayon, mayroon tayong pandemya,” he added.

(Mayor wants someone who can help in running the country, especially during the pandemic… Read More

(BusinessWorld) THE BANGKO SENTRAL ng Pilipinas (BSP) is likely to keep its key interest rate steady as the economy gradually reopens despite a continued surge in coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) infections.

A BusinessWorld poll held last week showed 17 out of 18 analysts expect the Monetary Board to hold the key policy rate at 2%, a historic low, on Sept. 23.

Analysts expect the central bank to look past the beyond-target inflation in order to support the economy’s recovery which has been stymied by the persistent rise in COVID-19 cases and lockdown restrictions.

“I think BSP will still keep its key policy rates at its current level. It might take some time before a significant economic growth can occur due to high infection rate and limited economic activity,” said Mitzie Irene P. Conchada, an economist from the De La Salle University… Read More