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Here are the top stories of The Manila Times for Tuesday, March 30, 2021.

READ: Cash aid for ECQ residents eyed

The Department of Budget and Management will recommend to President Rodrigo Duterte the handing out of cash assistance to 22.9 million low-income earners living in the National Capital Region or NCR and four outlying provinces that are under enhanced community quarantine or ECQ.

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READ: Longer lockdown being considered

Health experts in the Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases recommended the extension of the ECQ in the NCR and four neighboring provinces.

READ: Covid likely jumped from bats to humans

An international expert mission to Wuhan concluded in a report seen on Monday that coronavirus disease 2019 or Covid-19 likely first passed to humans from a bat through an intermediary animal with investigators all but ruling out a laboratory leak.

Meanwhile, in other news…

READ: Cancer, diabetes, obesity in DoH comorbidity list

As local government units start vaccinating senior citizens and people with comorbidities, the Department of Health or DoH released an initial list of diseases that qualify those who have it to be given vaccine priority.

READ: ‘Erap’ in hospital, tests positive for Covid-19

Former president Joseph “Erap” Ejercito Estrada was hospitalized on Sunday night after testing positive for Covid-19, his children announced on Monday.

READ: PH received 1M doses of Sinovac vaccine

The first batch of Covid-19 vaccines purchased by the government arrived in the Philippines on Monday.

READ: QC building managers told to report Covid cases

Quezon City Mayor Josefina “Joy” Belmonte-Alimurung has issued an order, requiring building managers and homeowners’ associations to report tenants and residents, who tested positive for Covid-19, to city hall in order that appropriate containment and intervention measures will immediately be implemented.

In regional news,

READ: CHR team probes killing of labor leader in Laguna

The Commission on Human Rights or CHR has launched an independent probe on the killing of the leader of the left-leaning labor group, Pamantik-Kilusang Mayo Uno.

In world news,

READ: Newlyweds blow up Indonesia church

Two suicide bombers who blew themselves up at an Indonesian cathedral on Palm Sunday were newlyweds, who belonged to a pro-Islamic State extremist group, police said on Monday as they raided the couple’s home.

In business,

READ: ING Bank sees lower GDP Q1 growth

ING Bank Manila on Monday cut its first quarter Philippine economic growth forecast to -3.6 percent from the earlier -3.4 percent due to the stricter quarantine measures recently imposed to prevent the spread of Covid-19.

And in sports,

READ: Gilas Pilipinas breaks camp in ‘Calambubble’

Gilas Pilipinas is set to break its “bubble” training camp at the Inspire Sports Academy in Calamba, Laguna amid the alarming spike of Covid-19 cases in the country, especially in the “NCR plus,” composed of the National Capital Region, Rizal, Bulacan, Cavite and Laguna.

Yen Makabenta and Ramon T. Tulfo are the featured columnists on the front page of The Times.

Makabenta gives the caveat that

READ: Fight with Covid-19 not over; on the horizon is Covid-21

Tulfo shares how

READ: Covid-19 has hit my home ground

In The Times editorial, it is warned that

READ: Unseemly threat will only invite defiance by the faithful

Read all about it.

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With Aric John Sy Cua, this is Dafort Villaseran reporting. Have a great week!