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(GMA News) Presidential aspirant Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. said there is a need to fix and empower the country’s agriculture and tourism sector.

“Kailangan nating ayusin ang ating agrikultura para may sapat tayo na pagkain para sa lahat at binawasan natin ang importasyon na galing sa labas,” Marcos said on Monday as he wooed Quezon City residents during a campaign rally at the Amoranto Sports Complex.

“Kailangan nating buhayin ang tourism industry para magkaroon uli ng trabaho para maipagmalaki na naman natin ang Pilipinas. Kailangan nating ituloy ang ating infrastructure program. Kailangan nating pagandahin ang ating internet, maraming marami po tayong kailangang gawin,” he added.

Marcos, however, did not specify how he will improve these sectors.

In his message to the crowd, Marcos maintained that unity is the answer for the country’s dilemmas, especially those brought by the COVID-19 pandemic.

“Sa hinaharap nating krisis ang kinakailangan nating unang hakbang na gawin ay magkaisa,” Marcos said.

“Tayo po ay dahan-dahang umaahon sa krisis ng pandemya ngunit kahit na tayo’y makalampas na sa krisis ng pandemya, kailangan pa rin nating harapin ang krisis ng ekonomiya na dala rin ng pandemya,” he added… Read More

(SunStar) THE Department of Health (DOH) on Sunday, February 13, 2022, said the Philippines logged 3,050 new coronavirus disease (Covid-19) cases.

Based on the Sunday case bulletin, the new cases increased the nationwide caseload to 3,637,280.

Of the 3,050 cases reported Sunday, 3,010 (99 percent) occurred between January 31 and February 13.

The top regions with cases in the recent two weeks were the National Capital Region with 556 or 18 percent, Western Visayas with 367 or 12 percent and Calabarzon with 311 or 10 percent.

The country’s positivity rate decreased but remained high at 11.7 percent among the 31,403 tested on February 11.

The DOH said the country also logged zero deaths in the country due to technical issues in extracting data from COVIDKaya.

“This has been coordinated with the DICT and rest assured that they are currently addressing this issue,” it said.

The death toll remained at 54,930 or a mortality rate of 1.51 percent.

Active cases in the country stood at 881,394 on Sunday, of which 71,994 were mild, 4,546 were asymptomatic, 3,068 were moderate, 1,460 were severe and 326 were critical.

The DOH said the Philippines also logged 5,811 new recoveries, bringing the total to recoveries since the start of the pandemic to 3,500,956… Read More

(BusinessWorld) THE COMMISSION on Elections (Comelec) risks losing its credibility after a delayed ruling allowing the son and namesake of the late dictator Ferdinand E. Marcos to run for president this year, political analysts said.

Last week’s delayed decision by the election body’s First Division does not improve people’s confidence about its independence, Maria Ela L. Atienza, a political science professor from the University of the Philippines, said in a Viber message at the weekend.

“The task of Comelec now is to make sure that it can settle internal issues, work swiftly, diligently and fairly, because the campaign period is in full swing and the elections are approaching,” she added.

In the ruling written by Commissioner Aimee P. Ferolino, Comelec said former Senator Ferdinand “Bongbong” R. Marcos, Jr.’s failure to file tax returns in the 1980s, for which he was convicted a decade later for tax evasion, did not involve wicked, deviant behavior… Read More

(BusinessWorld) THE PHILIPPINE capital and nearby cities are now at low risk from the coronavirus, as the country reported fewer than 5,000 coronavirus infections for the third straight day.

“As predicted two weeks ago, the National Capital Region improved to low risk as of Feb. 9,” OCTA Research Group fellow Fredegusto P. David tweeted late Wednesday.

He said Metro Manila’s coronavirus reproduction number on Feb. 3 to 9 declined to 0.25 from 0.41 a week earlier.

The virus positivity rate in the region has fallen to 9.1% from 15%, which is considered low but still above the 5% threshold set by the World Health Organization (WHO). The average daily attack rate also fell to a moderate 6.67 for 100,000 people from 17.83.

Mr. David said the capital region’s hospital use rate had improved to 29.6% from 37%.

The capital region is under Alert Level 2 until Feb. 15. The government is set to announce the virus alert level before the end of the week.

The Philippines posted 4,575 coronavirus infections on Thursday, bringing the total to 3.63 million, the Department of Health (DoH) said in a bulletin. The death toll from the virus hit 54,783 after 94 more patients died, while recoveries rose by 7,504 to 3.48 million… Read More

(SunStar) PHILIPPINE election officials dismissed on Thursday, February 10, 2022, three more petitions seeking to disqualify former senator Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. from the upcoming May elections in a ruling that removed a major obstacle to his candidacy, which human rights groups oppose.

Commission on Elections (Comelec) spokesperson James Jimenez said the three petitions against Marcos’s candidacy, which were consolidated into one case, were dismissed for lack of merit.

A final case remains pending, and petitioners of six dismissed cases have either appealed or intend to do so in a legal fight that will likely reach the Supreme Court as campaigning continues for the May 9 election.

The election commission rejected claims that Marcos Jr. should be removed from the presidential race and permanently barred from seeking public office due to a 1995 tax conviction and alleged falsehoods in his candidacy papers.

Marcos Jr. welcomed the dismissal of what his camp terms “nuisance petitions” and told the petitioners “to stop spreading lies” about him… Read More

(GMA News) Two Senate hopefuls running under the ticket of presidential aspirant Panfilo Lacson and vice presidential candidate Vicente Sotto III aired their views on separate matters on Thursday: the Commission on Elections’ restrictions during in-person campaigning, and the government importation of agricultural products.

‘Worse than the IATF’

At a press conference at the Lacson-Sotto headquarters in San Juan, senatorial candidate Dr. Minguita Padilla said the rules imposed by the Comelec are worse than the guidelines released by the government’s inter-agency task force that handles the COVID-19 pandemic.

“Perhaps, you can ask Comelec what is the basis of all these rules because it’s worse than the IATF,” Padilla said.

“Bawal mag-selfie kahit lahat bakunado naman, ang daming bawal, even to hand out pamphlets,” she added.

(The candidates are not allowed to take selfies even if we are all fully vaccinated. A lot of things are prohibited, even handing out pamphlets.)

Citing medical studies, Padilla said that it is “very unlikely” to contract COVID-19 from objects.

“There’s so many rules that they gave which we don’t know what’s their basis. Will they be more flexible as our alert level goes down? Will they reconsider their rules because it is very difficult to control the people,” she said in mixed Filipino.

Prior to Padilla’s statement, Sotto asked the poll body how they will sanction those who violate their restrictions… Read More

(BusinessWorld) The Commission on Elections (Comelec) on Thursday rejected three consolidated lawsuits seeking to disqualify the son and namesake of the late dictator Ferdinand E. Marcos from the presidential race this year.

In a 41-page decision, the election body’s First Division ruled former Senator Ferdinand “Bongbong” R. Marcos, Jr.’s conviction for tax evasion in the 1990s did not involve wicked, deviant behavior.

“Is the failure to file tax returns inherently immoral? We submit that it is not,” according to a copy of the ruling written by election Commissioner Aimee P. Ferolino. “The failure to file tax returns is not inherently wrong in the absence of a law punishing it.”

Commissioner Marlon S. Casquejo, who signed the ruling, also wrote a separate 12-page opinion in which he said Mr. Marcos’s crime did not involve “moral turpitude.”

“We cannot justify such omission necessarily results in injustice; this is an overkill,” he said in his opinion, referring to the presidential bet’s failure to file tax returns. “We cannot link such omission to contravention of morals; this is an exaggerated innuendo.”

Former First Division Presiding Commissioner Maria Rowena V. Guanzon released .. Read More

(CNN Philippines) Metro Manila — The Department of Health on Wednesday reported that the entire country is now at low to moderate risk for COVID-19, except for Soccsksargen, which remains at high risk.

This was after the region registered a 56% two-week growth rate in cases, the DOH said.

Last week, the department de-escalated the Philippines to the moderate risk classification following the drop in new infections.

As of Wednesday, 16 out of the 17 regions nationwide are also at either low to moderate risk after recording negative growth rates in the past 14 days.

“All regions reported fewer cases on Jan. 27 to Feb. 9 than on Jan. 13 to 26, except for Region 12 (Soccsksargen),” the DOH said.

The department added that the total bed and intensive care unit utilization rates in all regions, including Soccsksargen, are currently at low to moderate risk.

Based on the government’s last update, the number of active cases in the country – or people currently sick with COVID-19 – dipped to 96,326. It’s the first time in a little over a month that active infections were less than 100,000. New cases were at 3,651.

The independent OCTA Research group said it expects daily COVID-19 infections to again drop to three digits by March… Read More