Good day. Here are the stories for The Manila Times for Monday, May 10, 2021.

READ: ‘Use idle funds to buy vaccines’

SEN. Panfilo "Ping" Lacson proposed the realignment of vast congressional budget insertions to fund the government’s P20-billion pandemic response. Lacson made the proposal after meeting last May 6 with Senate President Vicente Sotto 3rd and the three “czars" in the government's fight against Covid-19. Lacson said vaccine czar Carlito Galvez Jr., testing czar Vivencio Dizon and contact tracing czar Benjamin Magalong told him P20 billion had to be raised to buy vaccines in 2021 and P90 billion in 2022. He suggested P20 billion can be sourced from insertions marked "for later release" because implementing agencies concerned "were not consulted on insertions and thus could not implement.”

READ: ‘India's Covid variant may dodge vaccines’

Get the latest news
delivered to your inbox
Sign up for The Manila Times newsletters
By signing up with an email address, I acknowledge that I have read and agree to the Terms of Service and Privacy Policy.

A Covid-19 variant spreading in India is more contagious and may be dodging vaccine protections, contributing to the country's explosive outbreak, the World Health Organization's (WHO) chief scientist said Saturday. In an interview with Agence France-Presse, Soumya Swaminathan warned "the epidemiological features we see in India today do indicate it's an extremely rapidly spreading variant." India on Saturday for the first time registered more than 4,000 Covid-19 deaths in just 24 hours and more than 400,000 new infections. New Delhi has struggled to contain the outbreak, which has overwhelmed its healthcare system and many experts suspect the official death and case numbers are gross underestimate. Swaminathan, an Indian pediatrician and clinical scientist, said the B.1.617 variant of Covid-19, which was first detected in India last October, was clearly a contributing factor to the catastrophe unfolding in her homeland.

READ: Covid cases in Metro Manila decline

The Covid-19 outlook for Metro Manila continues to improve, Octa Research said on Sunday. Octa said the daily Covid-19 case average was trending down. New cases dropped to 2,172 cases during the May 2 to 8 period, a 61-percent drop from the peak of the surge on March 29 to April 4. Octa projects the National Capital Region (NCR) to average less than 1,900 new cases per day by May 14. It also said the reproduction number in NCR slipped to 0.67 from 0.70 on May 8.

READ: Include athletes in vaccine priority list – Tolentino

SEN. Francis Tolentino has appealed to the Inter-Agency Task Force on Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF-EID) to include Filipino athletes in the government’s priority list for Covid-19 vaccination. In a statement on Sunday, Tolentino said amateur and professional athletes had been left out of the A4 priority group. He raised the need to immediately inoculate athletes, especially those participating in the Tokyo Olympics in July and the 2021 Southeast Asian Games in Hanoi, Vietnam, in November.

READ: Graduates should have skills for the future — senator

SEN. Sherwin Gatchalian wants senior high school graduates equipped with skills needed for the so-called fourth industrial revolution so they can benefit from the government’s artificial intelligence (AI) roadmap. The senator on Sunday lauded the proposed AI research center under the AI roadmap and pushed for K-12 graduates’ readiness for the fourth industrial revolution or “industry 4.0.”

BUSINESS: GDP likely contracted by 3.3% in Q1

In business, the Philippine economy likely contracted for the fifth consecutive quarter as quarantine restrictions continued to affect economic activity, analysts polled by The Manila Times said. Forecasts for the period ranged from -2.9 to -3.8 percent with a -3.3 percent average, slower than the -8.3 percent in the fourth quarter but worse than the -0.7 percent recorded in the first quarter a year ago. Official first quarter gross domestic product (GDP) growth data will be released by the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) on May 11. Alvin Ang from the Ateneo Center for Research and Development (ACERD) projected the economy to contract by 3.8 percent this year. He however did not provide an explanation. Economists from UnionBank and Security Bank Corporation (SBC) estimated a 3.5 percent contraction.

SPORTS: PBA eyes June 15 season opening

Over to sports, the Philippine Basketball Association (PBA) hopes to start its 46th Season on June 15, according to Barangay Ginebra San Miguel governor Alfrancis Chua. Chua, together with league commissioner Willie Marcial, sat down in a meeting with Sen. Christopher Lawrence “Bong” Go and Executive Secretary Salvador Medialdea in Malacañang last week, appealing for the PBA to start its games under a closed-circuit setup.

READ: Opinion and editorial

Rigoberto Tiglao and Fr. Ranhilio Aquino are today’s front page columnists. Tiglao accuses four men of being part of a “triad” in the previous administration’s discord with China, while Fr. Aquino discusses why there has to be an international law.

Today’s editorial believes the nation should continue to be vigilant, even as Covid-19 cases are on the decline. Read the full version on the paper’s opinion section or listen to the Voice of the Times.

For more news and information, get a copy of The Manila Times on print, subscribe to its digital edition or log on to www.manilatimes.net.

Follow us on Twitter, Facebook or Instagram and Keep Up With The Times.

With Dafort Villaseran, this is Aric John Sy Cua reporting. May you have a safe week ahead.