Good day. Here are the stories for The Manila Times for Saturday, May 14, 2022.
READ: Business group back BBM govt
TWO of the country's most powerful business groups are willing to work with President-elect Ferdinand "Bongbong" Marcos Jr.'s administration in sustaining economic targets that will speed up the country's recovery. Marcos' office said on Friday it has received separate statements of support from the Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industry (PCCI) and Joint Foreign Chambers (JFC). PCCI is asking the public to give the new administration time to develop and share their development plans.
READ: Inclusive growth 'possible under Marcos'
PRESIDENTIAL Adviser for Entrepreneurship Jose Maria "Joey" Concepcion 3rd on Friday said the overwhelming mandate given to President-elect Ferdinand "Bongbong" Marcos Jr. during Monday's elections presents a greater chance for inclusive growth for the Philippines.Concepcion made the statement after the partial and unofficial election results showed that Marcos had over 31 million votes. Concepcion also acknowledged that the votes Marcos received came from the underprivileged.
READ: Epic win over Ateneo ends UP's UAAP title drought
THE University of the Philippines Fighting Maroons hungered for a UAAP men's basketball championship for the last 36 years.The long wait finally ended on Friday with an epic victory over the Ateneo de Manila Blue Eagles that was capped by a three-pointer in the dying moments of an overtime period.Joel Cagulangan worked around a pick set up by center Malick Diouf to set himself up for the step-back triple that shattered a 69-all tie with 0.5 seconds to go.The UP fans that packed the Mall of Asia Arena in Paranaque City exploded in wild celebration.A court-length desperation heave by Dave Ildefonso was wide of the mark. The Fighting Maroons' 72-69 victory also ended the Blue Eagles' three-season reign as men's basketball titlists. Diouf was named the Finals MVP. The finals series went the full route after Ateneo edged out UP last Wednesday to force Friday's do-or-die game.
READ: Canvassing almost complete, Comelec says
ONLY 35 of the total 173 Certificates of Canvass (COCs) needed to be processed by the Commission on Elections (Comelec) en banc, sitting as the National Board of Canvassers (NBOC), before it suspended its session on Friday afternoon. Comelec Chairman Saidamen Pangarungan suspended the canvassing at 4:45 p.m., and will resume at 3 p.m. on Saturday, pending the arrival of the remaining certificates from different provinces, cities and overseas posts which will be electronically or manually transmitted. Comelec spokesman Rex Laudiangco said the board remains confident it will finish the canvassing this week and can proclaim the winning senators and party-list group by Monday.The board finished 33 COCs before session was suspended Friday.
READ: Special polls for overseas voting in Shanghai set
Meanwhile, the Comelec on Friday announced that it will be setting special elections for overseas absentee voting (OAV) in Shanghai where an intensified Covid-19 lockdown is currently in effect. Comelec acting spokesman John Rey Laudiangco also said out of the 26 electronically generated certificates of canvass (COCs) from the OAV, only the one in Hong Kong has not yet been submitted to the Comelec for canvassing because of the lockdown in Shanghai. The Hong Kong COC constitutes Hong Kong, Macau and mainland China. Shanghai, China's largest city, has 1,991 overseas voters. It is now on its seventh week of city-wide restrictions.
READ: PH detects 14 cases of new Omicron subvariant
THE Philippines has detected 14 cases of the BA2.12.1 sublineage of the Omicron variant of the coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19), the Department of Health (DoH) said on Friday. According to Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire, the first two cases were detected from the National Capital Region on April 21. Both cases had been boosted and only had mild symptoms and undertook home isolation from April 21 to 28. They were now tagged as asymptomatic and have since recovered. Their 39 close contacts had also been identified and were asymptomatic, but their testing, quarantine and vaccination status are being verified. The remaining cases came from a mini-cruise line in Puerto Princesa, Palawan, where 11 foreigners and a local tested positive on April 29. They were supposed to go on a diving trip to Tubbataha Reef, but one of the foreign nationals had nasal congestion and tested positive for the antigen test. A total of 15 individuals tested positive for Covid-19, and 11 had the variant. Vergeire said that the BA2.12.1 subvariant is different from the BA2.12 sublineage that was detected in a 52-year-old Finnish woman two weeks ago.
BUSINESS: Dominguez sets advise for PH debt
FINANCE Secretary Carlos Dominguez 3rd has some suggestions on how the incoming administration could address the nation's mounting debt. Data from the Bureau of the Treasury revealed that the national government's outstanding debt reached a new high of P12.67 trillion as of the end of March this year, accounting for 63.5 percent of the country's gross domestic product (GDP). The debt-to-GDP ratio as of end-March 2022 is greater than the 60.5 percent recorded at the end of last year, and the highest since the 65.7 percent recorded in 2005. It also exceeds the international 50-percent threshold and the 60-percent cap set by the Duterte administration. The government's top priority, the Department of Finance has stressed, is to reduce the country's debt. It said the Philippines' debt management is being closely monitored by the three major credit rating agencies, namely Fitch Ratings, Moody's Investors Service and S&P Global Ratings.
SPORTS: Lhuillier confident of PH's tennis campaign
In sports, longtime tennis patron and Unified Tennis Federation president Jean Henri Lhuillier believes the Philippines will have a successful campaign in tennis at the ongoing 31st Southeast Asian (SEA) Games in Hanoi, Vietnam. Three Cebuana Lhuillier tennis ambassadors — Treat Huey, Ruben Gonzales and Nino Alcantara — are playing for the national team. Lhuillier said they are fielding a veteran team composed of seasoned internationalists that stand a good chance of hitting the three gold medals forecast for the squad. Female tennis sensation Alex Eala, a doubles champion at the 2020 Australian Open Juniors and 2021 French Open Juniors, is also playing for the Philippine flag.
READ: Opinion and editorial
Antonio Contreras and Yen Makabenta are today's front page columnists. Contreras analyzes what went wrong in the Robredo campaign, while Makabenta calls on President-elect Ferdinand "Bongbong" Marcos, Jr. to take the lead, now that the country has given their mandate to him.
Today's editorial discusses the economic performance of the outgoing Duterte administration and what the incoming administration has in store. Read a full version on the paper's opinion section or listen to the Voice of the Times.
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On behalf of The Manila Times, this is EJ Gomez reporting.