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(BusinessWorld) THE GOVERNMENT is seeking to tighten the rules against lockdown violators, according to President Rodrigo R. Duterte.

“We might calibrate our response to the intransigence that you will show,” he said in a televised speech on Monday night.

In his report to the President, Interior and Local Government Secretary Eduardo M. Año said they have filed cases against six village officials who failed to prevent mass gatherings.

The tough-talking leader earlier ordered police to arrest village chiefs who fail to stop so-called super spreader events.

Mr. Duterte had placed Metro Manila and nearby provinces under a strict lockdown from March to mid-May amid a fresh surge in coronavirus infections.

The restrictions were eventually eased after the infection rate in these areas eased.

The Health department has cited a fresh surge in infections in the southern and central Philippines.

The country’s healthcare utilization rate stood at 50%, presidential spokesman Herminio L. Roque, Jr., told a televised news briefing on Tuesday.

He said about 48% of isolation beds had been used and about 49% of ward beds were occupied.

About 58% of intensive care unit beds have been used, he said… Read More

(PhilStar) MANILA, Philippines — The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) has approved the applications of Tonik Digital Bank and UNObank to operate as digital banks in the country, bringing to three the number of participants in the new bank classification.

Tonik Digital Bank, a unit of Singapore-based Tonik Financial headed by founder and chief executive officer Greg Krasnov, was granted a license to operate as a rural bank in the Philippines in December 2019.

Tonik offers its financial products and services 100 percent online, unlike traditional and digital banks that require maintaining a few physical branches. It offers accessible, flexible, and inclusive financial services, including industry-leading deposit interest rates of up to six percent per annum, and unique saving features.

It has secured over P1 billion in retail deposits just a few months after it launched a mobile platform offering game-changing deposit interest rates of up to six percent per annum for time deposits.

On the other hand, UNObank – operated by Singapore’s DigibankAsia – is working with cloud banking provider Mambu and Amazon Web Services for its rollout in the Philippines.

Uno banking platform Cognito weaves in AI (artificial intelligence) at its very core with innovative ways to apply advanced machine vision and learning models on customer onboarding, transaction authorizations, alternate data based credit scoring, product and interface personalization at an individual level to advanced security, risk and privacy management patterns

Last April, the Monetary Board approved the digital bank license of the Overseas Filipino (OF) Bank, a subsidiary of the state-run Land Bank of the Philippines.

The regulator issued Circular 1105 in December last year, recognizing digital bank as a new bank category that is separate and distinct from the existing bank classifications. It is defined as a bank that offers financial products and services that are processed end-to-end through a digital platform and electronic channels with no physical branches offering financial products and services.

The guidelines pegged the minimum capitalization of digital banks at P1 billion. Under the framework approved by the Monetary Board, the number of digital bank licenses is initially capped at five.

The BSP embarked on a Digital Payments Transformation Roadmap to convert 50 percent of total retail transactions in the country to electronic channels and to raise the number of Filipinos owning financial accounts to 70 percent by 2023.

With the shift in consumer behavior due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Diokno is confident the goals would be achieved “before the end of 2022.”… Read More

(GMA News) The Bureau of Immigration (BI) has prevented the departure of two women who are said to be victims of human trafficking.

Members of the bureau’s Travel Control and Enforcement Unit (TCEU) intercepted the two females at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) before they could board their flights to the Middle East, Immigration Commissioner Jaime Morente said in a statement.

One of them was stopped at the NAIA Terminal 3 on May 31 as she was about to board a flight to Doha.

TCEU reported “Sari” (not her real name), who hails from Sultan Kudarat, presented documents showing that she is already 27 years old. But after giving contradictory answers to questions when interviewed, she admitted that she is only 21 years old.

The woman allegedly claimed that her recruiter will withhold her first three months of salary as a household service worker (HSW) in Qatar in exchange for processing her travel documents.

“Ria,” meanwhile, was intercepted at the NAIA Terminal 1 on June 1 before she could board a flight to Riyadh.

The woman’s travel documents indicated she is already 26 years old but she later confessed during the interview that she is only 19 years old. The minimum age requirement for Filipino HSWs is 23 years old.

Ria reportedly identified her handler as a certain Norah whom she met at her hometown in Pikit, Cotabato and who promised her a salary of P40,000 to work as an HSW.

“Do not allow these syndicates to entice you to agree to these illegal methods because our officers at the airport are adept in spotting OFWs who are apparently underage and thus are ineligible for overseas job deployment,” Morente said.

“These recruiters will just leave you once they sense trouble,” he added.

Both victims were turned over to the Inter-Agency Council Against Trafficking (IACAT) for assistance in filing cases against their recruiters, the BI said… Read More

(BusinessWorld) THE PHILIPPINES started immunizing its labor force against the coronavirus on Monday as government seeks to further reopen its economy after imposing one of the strictest and longest lockdowns in the world.

President Rodrigo R. Duterte said the vaccination of essential workers in the private and public sectors is a “major milestone” in the fight against the pandemic.

“With the start of our mass vaccination, the A4 priority category — workers in both public and private sectors — will have an added layer of protection against the disease,” he said in a taped message during the symbolic vaccination of some workers near the capital.

The inoculation of private workers, government employees, and informal sectors workers is being carried out first in Metro Manila and other key economic hubs due to limited supply. Health authorities have said people aged 45 years and up would be prioritized.

“It is very important that we use the vaccines to reduce the deaths by prioritizing this group,” World Health Organization country representative Rabindra Abeyasinghe told a news briefing after the program, noting that people in this age group were likely to die once they get infected.

The Philippines aims to inoculate at least 500,000 people daily in Metro Manila, Rizal, Bulacan, Cavite, Laguna, Metro Cebu, and Metro Davao to achieve herd immunity by Nov. 27.

The Department of Health (DoH) reported 6,539 coronavirus infections on Monday, bringing the total to 1.28 million.

The death toll rose by 71 to 21,969, while recoveries increased by 6,969 to 1.2 million, it said in a bulletin.

There were 58,854 active cases, 1.3% of which were critical, 93.4% were mild, 2.4% did not show symptoms, 1.7% were severe and 1.16% were moderate.

It said 13 duplicates had been removed from the tally, 10 of which were tagged as recoveries. Twenty-one recoveries were reclassified as deaths. Seven laboratories failed to submit data on June 5, the agency said.

About 12.9 million Filipinos have been tested for the coronavirus as of June 4, according to DoH’s tracker website.

The coronavirus has sickened about 174.1 million and killed 3.7 million people worldwide, according to the Worldometers website, citing various sources including data from the World Health Organization.

About 157.1 million people have recovered, it said.

Meanwhile, Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario S. Vergeire said mass gatherings remained prohibited.

“We urge the public to stay home and go out only when needed to prevent the transmission of COVID-19 (coronavirus disease 2019),” she told an online news briefing, adding that local governments should enforce health protocols.

Vaccine czar Carlito G. Galvez, Jr. said the Philippine seeks to breach this week the six-million mark in its coronavirus vaccination program. The country would receive more than 10 million doses of coronavirus vaccines this month, he told a separate online news briefing.

The government would take delivery this month of about 100,000 more doses of Sputnik V vaccines from Russia and 5.5 million doses of CoronaVac from China, he said.

About 2.8 million doses of the vaccine made by Pfizer, Inc. and about 2 million doses of the vaccine made by AstraZeneca Plc, which were obtained under a global initiative for equal access, would also arrive this month.

About 250,000 doses of the vaccine made by Moderna, Inc. are also expected to arrive this month, he added.

Mr. Galvez said more than 5.9 million coronavirus vaccines have been given out as of Sunday, about 1.5 million of which were second shots.

The Philippines, which began its vaccination on March 1, aims to inoculate as many as 70 million Filipinos this year to achieve herd immunity.

About 22 million essential workers are expected to be vaccinated, the Department of Health (DoH) said.

The vaccination would be held in phases, Ms. Vergeire said, citing Mr. Galvez. The vaccination of so-called economic frontliners workers would start in Metro Manila, Bulacan, Cavite, Rizal, Laguna, Pampanga, Batangas, Metro Cebu and Metro Davao, she said.

There were about 12 million people under the category in prioritized areas, she added.

Eligible workers include private sector workers who physically go to work, state employees including those who work in in government-owned and -controlled companies and local government units, informal sector and self-employed workers who physically report to work.

Under a DoH memo, workers aged 40 to 50 years old, then to 18 to 39 years old would be prioritized when vaccine supply is limited.

They will be simultaneously vaccinated alongside healthcare workers, senior citizens and seriously ill people… Read More

(GMA News) Vaccine czar Carlito Galvez Jr. on Sunday said the national government expects the arrival of an additional one million doses of Sinovac and 2.2 million doses of Pfizer COVID-19 vaccines on June 10.

Earlier, one million doses of CoronaVac, the COVID-19 vaccine of Sinovac, were delivered in Manila on Sunday.

“We are being more committed na magkaroon ng steady supply. Darating coming June 10, another 1 million from Sinovac and darating din ‘yung ating COVAX na 2.2 million ng Pfizer (On June 10, one million more Sinovac shots and 2.2 million Pfizer shots from COVAX will arrive.),” said Galvez in an interview with reporters at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport.

Galvez said they also expect more than two million doses of AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccines to arrive in the Philippines in the next two weeks. He added that these vaccines were from the COVAX facility.

Vaccine brands delivered to the Philippines to date include Sinovac, AstraZeneca, Pfizer-BioNTech and Sputnik V.

Ceremonial vaccination of A4 in Pasay

Health Secretary Francisco Duque III on Sunday said there will be a ceremonial rollout of COVID-19 jabs for those included in the A4 category or economic frontliners.

“Tomorrow there will be a ceremonial rollout for vaccination of A4. Bukas sisimulan na natin ang simultaneous jabbing for A1, 2, 3 and 4 (On Monday, we will start the simultaneous jabbing of A1, 2, 3, and 4,” Duque told reporters after the arrival of Sinovac vaccines at NAIA.

The ceremonial inoculation will be held at the SM Mall of Asia in Pasay City at 10 a.m., Duque added.

Duque said Galvez, presidential spokesman Harry Roque, and treatment czar Vince Dizon will join the event.

In a bid to help the economy recover, the National Economic and Development Authority said at least 35.5 million workers are targeted to be vaccinated as the national government simplified the A4 category… Read More

(SunStar) SENIOR citizens and persons with comorbidities who are not registered to be vaccinated against coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) will no longer be accommodated at vaccination sites in Lapu-Lapu City starting Monday, June 7, 2021.

The City Government announced on Saturday, June 5, that it will be implementing the “no walk-in” policy after chaos ensued during its vaccine rollout at the Gun-ob Elementary School on Thursday, June 3.

Apparently, those who were scheduled to be vaccinated that day were turned down, while those who didn’t register for the City’s vaccination program but showed up early received the jab.

Dr. Agnes Realiza, City Health Office head, said they want to prevent crowding in the vaccination site and to ensure that physical distancing is observed.

Realiza said walk-ins who insist on getting vaccinated will be asked to register in another area at the vaccination site so they can be scheduled.

The situation at the Gun-ob Elementary School, which was jam-packed with senior citizens and persons with comorbidities, resulted in an uncontrolled mass gathering.

According to one senior citizen, who asked not to be named, people like her who were scheduled to receive their dose that day were either told to wait or return the next day.

She said she had to wait five hours for the injection, which was her second dose, while walk-in clients were prioritized.

She even claimed that one of the health officials at the site threw a chair in a fit of frustration.

In the past week, the City vaccinated 12,680 individuals, surpassing its target of inoculating 1,500 senior citizens and persons with comorbidities daily.

According to Mayor Junard Chan, the City has vaccinated a total of 16,240 individuals, while 3,212 have received their second dose.

Barangay captains have been going house-to-house, encouraging residents to register for the City’s vaccination program. Turnout had been slow at the start, with only more than 1,000 individuals showing up at vaccination sites.

Although Realiza believes the high turnout in recent days is praiseworthy, they must avoid situations that result in a mass gathering.

“Though we are glad that more people are getting educated when it comes to the Covid-19 vaccine, we need to avoid the scenario of them gathering and causing trouble,” she said in Cebuano.

Aside from the vaccination site in Gun-ob, the City’s two other vaccination sites are located at the Barangay Agus gym and the Sta. Rosa Hospital in Olango Island.

Realiza said they plan to open two more vaccination sites at the Island Central Mall in Barangay Ibo and the city auditorium in Barangay Pajo. That way, the public will have a choice where they will get their injection, she said.

As of Saturday, the City only has 1,000 vaccines available… Read More

(GoodNewsPilipinas) Four giant solar artworks hand-built by the Liter of Light and its volunteers for the United Nations World Environment Day are lighting up SM Mall of Asia (MOA) on Saturday night, June 5, 2021.

These are the latest solar tributes led by the Filipino-born global grassroots solar lighting movement that coincides with the UN Decade of Action, “a global push to halt and reverse the degradation of our precious ecosystems so that they can continue to support humanity’s survival.”

The SM Supermall in Pasay City, Manila in the Philippines hosts the large-scale artworks of the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) that were created using solar lights hand-built by thousands of participants from the safety of home. The lamps were created as part of the “Light It Forward” campaign which Liter of Light launched in July 2020.

Four large-scale solar artworks have been built at the SM MOA bayside property to honor the 75th Anniversary of the United Nations with the additional support of the Rotary Club of Makati Business District, Volunteers from the Pasay City Force Substation 10, Barangay Peacekeeping Action Team BPAT Force Multipliers (Pasay City), First Gen Corp. Philippines, and AirAsia.

These solar artworks to be lit are:

1. World Environment Day
2. GOAL 14: Life Below Water
3. GOAL 17: Partnerships to Achieve the Goal
4. GOAL 16: Making Peace with Nature

The culminating artworks will be displayed at the Mall of Asia Globe. It includes this year’s hashtags for a generation that can make peace with nature and join #GenerationRestoration… Read More

(CNNPhilippines) Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, June 5) – Filipino tennis wunderkind Alex Eala gained an advantage in her second French Open girls’ singles competition outing after being named as the tournament’s No. 2 seed.

Eala earned the same position at the start of the 2020 French Open, where she reached the semifinals to be the first Filipino to advance in a Grand Slam semifinal match since Felix Barrientos in the 1985 Wimbledon juniors tournament.

She will face British bet Matilda Mutavdzic in the first round.

The 16-year-old Filipino tennis sensation is fresh from runner-up finish in her first doubles tournament in the professional tennis circuit. She and Russian partner Oksana Selekhmeteva finished second in the W25 Platja D’Aro in Spain last May 22.

The 2021 French Open will be Eala’s fourth Grand Slam singles tournament after she competed in the 2020 Australian Open and 2019 US Open.

Eala is also the 2020 Australian Open girls’ doubles champion – a feat she won with Indonesian partner Priska Madelyn Nugroho.

Eala is currently in her career high world no. 624 in the latest Women’s Tennis Association rankings. She remains the third best-ranked junior female tennis player in the world, according to the International Tennis Federation… Read More