Good day. Here are the top stories of The Manila Times for Monday, December 21, 2020.
Over 200 companies joined the private sector initiative to buy more doses of the coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) vaccine from AstraZeneca. Presidential Adviser for Entrepreneurship Jose Maria “Joey” Concepcion 3rd said AstraZeneca has approved the second batch of orders of vaccine doses from Philippine firms. Concepcion said Ayala Corp. ordered 400,000 doses; Palawan Pawnshop, 100,000; Okada Manila, 40,000; Uratex Philippines, 21,000; Century Pacific Food, 20,000; Unioil Petroleum Philippines Inc., 20,000; Golden Arches Development Corp., 15,000; and Pepsi-Cola Products Philippines Inc., 10,000. Last week, he announced that AstraZeneca approved the request of the private sector of more doses to be donated to the government and the private sector. He said donations from the private sector could go past 3 million doses from the 2.6 million in the initial deal with the pharmaceutical firm signed last November.
Read: 200 firms chip in to buy vaccine doses
China’s top respiratory diseases expert Zhong Nanshan said environment-to-human transmission has become a new pattern in the spread of Covid-19 and called on scientists to look for answers to this growing problem. Zhong’s comments came amid a slew of outbreaks in Chinese cities that were caused by contaminated outer packaging of imported cold-chain foods.
Read: Expert warns of new Covid transmission patterns
A research firm has listed 16 names as potential contenders in the 2022 presidential elections, based on their popularity on social media. BluePrint.PH said that among those in the list are Vice President Maria Leonor “Leni” Robredo; Senators Emmanuel “Manny” Pacquiao, Christopher Lawrence “Bong” Go, Ana Theresia “Risa” Hontiveros and Mary Grace Poe; and tycoon Ramon Ang. Also included are human rights lawyer Jose Manuel “Chel” Diokno, Davao Mayor Sara Duterte-Carpio, former speaker Alan Peter Cayetano, Senate President Vicente “Tito” Sotto 3rd, Cavite Gov. Juanito Victor “ Jonvic” Remulla, Sen. Pilar Juliana “Pia” Cayetano, former senators Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. and Manuel “Manny” Villar, Leyte Rep. Lucy Torres- Gomez, and Manila Mayor Francisco “Isko Moreno” Domagoso. In a statement, BluePrint.PH said it scanned 344,761,479 data points or Facebook engagements, such as likes, shares, reactions and comments, from June 1 to November 30.
Read: 16 early presidential contenders listed
THE National Capital Region’s (NCR) Peace and Order Council has issued a resolution recommending a ban on firecrackers this Christmas season, a Department of Health (DoH) official said on Sunday. Health Promotion and Media Relations Unit head of DoH-NCR Dr. Laila Celino confirmed that council chairman, Parañaque Mayor Edwin Olivarez, has signed the resolution.
Read: Metro firecracker ban pushed
THE family and relatives of 160 Dengvaxia victims and seven employees of the Public Attorney’s Office (PAO) are readying criminal charges before the Office of the Ombudsman against Senators Franklin Drilon and Juan Eduardo “Sonny” Angara. Dr. Alexi Angelo Sulit and Dr. John King Soliman, who head the PAO’s Forensics Laboratory Division, said their rights as government workers were “brazenly violated by the two senators.”
Read: Drilon, Angara face Dengvaxia-linked raps
Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana has quashed reports that Metro Manila will revert to modified enhanced community quarantine (MECQ) following a rise in coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) cases in the capital region. Lorenzana, the concurrent chairman of the National Task Force Against Covid-19 (NTF Covid-19), said the metropolis’ Covid-19 situation is “stable and manageable” as of the moment.
Read: Lorenzana: Metro Manila won’t return to MECQ
MANILA Electric Co. (Meralco) will not cut off the electricity of customers who have not paid their bills until the end of January. Speaker Lord Allan Velasco announced the extension of Meralco’s disconnection policy Sunday. Velasco said he had written to Meralco President and Chief Executive Officer Ray Espinosa in November requesting the power distributor to extend the no-disconnection policy through the Christmas season. In his response dated December 14, Espinosa said after “careful evaluation and in consideration” of his request, Meralco would extend its no-disconnection policy for non-payment of bills from Dec. 31, 2020 to Jan. 31, 2021. He added that the extended grace period would benefit more than three million Meralco customers who consume less than 200 kilowatts per hour (kWh) during the December billing month. The number represents around 47 percent of Meralco’s total customer base, he said.
POLICE investigators cleared Palace spokesman Harry Roque Jr. and Sen. Emmanuel Pacquiao from any accountability in the alleged violation of health protocols during public events that they attended. Interior Secretary Eduardo Año on Sunday said Roque and Pacquiao were reminded to take all precautions to avoid any similar events from happening.
Quezon City Mayor Josefina Belmonte emerged as the top performing local executive in the National Capital Region (NCR), according to a non-commissioned survey. She was followed by Pasig City Mayor Victor Maria Regis Sotto and Manila Mayor Francisco Domagoso. The survey was conducted by RP-Mission and Development Foundation Inc. (RPMDinc). In face-to-face interviews, the 3,500 respondents were asked to rate their respective mayors based on their over-all job performance in 2020.
Read: Belmonte, Sotto, Moreno top performers – survey
In business, maintaining good fundamentals will allow the Philippines to immediately recover from the coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) pandemic, the Department of Finance (DoF) said. The DoF in an economic bulletin said the current account balance hit a surplus of $8.7 billion, or 92.4 percent of gross domestic product (GDP), in January to September this year, a reversal from the deficit of $3.0 billion during the same period in 2019 on the back of the lower deficit in trade in goods.
Read: Good fundamentals key to recovery
Topping sports, Filipino boxer Reymart Gaballo beat Puerto Rican Emmanuel Rodriguez via split decision to stay undefeated, and clinch the World Boxing Council (WBC) interim bantamweight title on Saturday (Sunday in Manila) at the Mohegan Sun Arena in Uncasville, Connecticut. The judges scored 116-112 and 115-113 in favor of Gaballo, and 118-110 in favor of Rodriguez. Gaballo put pressure on Rodriguez from beginning to end, bloodying the nose of the Puerto Rican in the fourth round. Gaballo’s most telling shot came in the ninth round when he shook Rodriguez with a left hook at the 1:08 mark.
Read: Gaballo clinches WBC interim bantamweight crown via split decision win vs Rodriguez
Rigoberto Tiglao and Fr. Ranhilio Aquino are today’s front page columnists of the Times. Tiglao belies media reports that President Rodrigo Duterte would be tried at the International Criminal Court for his war on drugs, while Fr. Aquino discusses the eternal good news of Jesus Christ.
Read: No ICC ruling vs Duterte
Read: Eternally good news
Today’s Times editorial tackles the instructions of the Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF-EID) and the Department of Health (DoH) regarding citizens’ use of the face mask and face shield in public. Read the full version on the paper’s Opinion Section or listen to the Voice of The Times.
Read: IATF and DoH should defend new face mask/face shield edict
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With Dafort Villaseran, this is Aric John Sy Cua reporting. Have a safe holiday week ahead and stay safe.