Good day. Here are the stories of The Manila Times for Friday, December 18, 2020.
President Rodrigo Duterte has defended Health Secretary Fransisco Duque 3rd from allegations that Duque botched the government’s deal with an American pharmaceutical company to supply the Philippines with a coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) vaccine. Presidential spokesman Harry Roque said on Thursday the President does not see any major lapse by Duque in negotiations with Pfizer. Sen. Panfilo Lacson on Wednesday accused Duque of messing up the negotiations in a follow-up to Foreign Affairs Secretary Teodoro Locsin Jr.’s tweet that 10 million doses of the Pfizer vaccine could have been delivered to the country by January had not “someone dropped the ball.” Lacson said Locsin was referring to Duque. Roque said the President advised Duque during Wednesday’s meeting of the Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF-EID) to answer Locsin’s allegations.
Read: Duterte backs Duque in vaccine deal ‘mess’
President Rodrigo Duterte has certified as urgent the newest version of the measure calling for the creation of the Department of Overseas Filipinos (DOFil). Sen. Christopher Lawrence “Bong” Go, who filed the measure, thanked Duterte for heeding the calls of overseas Filipinos and their families. Go urged his colleagues in the Senate to immediately act on the passage of the measure. Senate Bill 1949, also known as the “Department of Overseas Filipinos Act of 2020,” defines the proposed agency’s powers and functions, and rationalizes the organization and functions of government agencies related to overseas employment and migration. In the new version, the department secretary will have the authority to assess and evaluate, and transfer, delineate, reassign or reorganize the functional areas or responsibilities of each office.
Read: OFW department bill certified as urgent
MANILA has been the country’s “most competitive” highly urbanized city during the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) 8th Regional Competitiveness Summit, an indication the city is regaining the trust of businessmen, Mayor Francisco “Isko Moreno” Domagoso said on Thursday. The city government won the Overall Competitiveness Award in the highly urbanized cities bracket in the annual 2020 Cities and Municipalities Competitiveness Index, which investigated the program implemented by cities to improve their "economic dynamism, government efficiency, infrastructure and resiliency."
Read: Manila award signifies traders’ trust
Law deans and professors in the Philippines are divided over whether to support Supreme Court Associate Justice Marvic Mario Victor Leonen who is fighting an impeachment case in the House of Representatives. The Manila Times obtained a draft of the Manifesto of Support for Leonen being circulated by Unibersidad de Manila Law Dean and Philippine Association of Law Schools (PALS) President Marisol Anenias. In a phone interview with The Times, Anenias refused to name the specific author of the manifesto, saying it was a collective decision of the law deans and law professors to support Leonen. But a source familiar with the issue told The Times Anenias himself is leading the move to gather sympathy for Leonen.
Read: Law deans, profs divided over Leonen support
THE Department of Health (DoH) warned that at least 4,000 cases of the coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) per day may be recorded in Metro Manila if Filipinos won’t comply with the minimum public health standards this holiday season. Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire said based on the initial projections by Fassster, or the Feasibility Analysis of Syndromic Surveillance Using Spatio-Temporal Epidemiological Modeler For Early Detection of Diseases, and the Academe-based Octa Research Group, the daily surge “may overwhelm the health system capacity to upwards of 80-percent utilization by the end of January if we do not act aggressively to halt the transmission now.” Experts have noted an increase in the case rate over two weeks, from -16 percent to -4 percent. Positive growth rates were recorded in Ilocos, Cagayan Valley, Cordillera and the National Capital Region (NCR). The number of new cases in relation to the overall burden in its population is the highest in the NCR, Cordillera Administrative Region, Calabarzon (Cavite, Laguna, Batangas, Rizal and Quezon) and Davao.
Read: NCR faces 4,000 Covid cases daily in January
In business, the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) on Thursday kept its key interest rates steady as monetary authorities still sees benign inflation environment. The central bank’s overnight borrowing, lending and deposit rates stayed at to 2.00 percent, 1.50 percent and 2.50 percent, respectively, after its policy-making Monetary Board held its last rate-setting policy meeting for the year.
Read: BSP interest rates kept; inflation outlook raised
Topping sports, Filipino Olympian Eumir Felix Marcial on Wednesday (Thursday in Manila) showed why he’s the country’s brightest hope for its first ever Olympic god medal by cruising to a shutout unanimous decision victory over American Andrew Whitfield at the Shrine Exposition Center in Los Angeles in California. All the four judges saw the fight in favor of Marcial in a 40-36 outclassing of his American counterpart over four rounds in, actually, the Filipino middleweight’s professional debut, which he’s, too, using as a jumpstart in his build up for next year’s Olympic Games, which will be held in Tokyo, Japan.
Read: Marcial dominates Whitfield in pro debut
Rigoberto Tiglao is the front page columnist for today’s issue of the Times. He discusses about partylist group Gabriela’s possible links to communist fronts.
Read: Gotcha, Gabriela?
Today’s Times editorial is related to our top story, as it discusses Health Secretary Francisco Duque’s “dropping of the ball” in the deal with pharmaceutical company Pfizer for the coronavirus vaccine. Read the full version on the paper's Opinion Section or listen to the Voice of The Times.
Read: If Duque dropped the ball in Pfizer deal, let’s pick it up
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With Dafort Villaseran, this is Aric John Sy Cua reporting. Have a good day ahead and stay safe.