The Department of Health reported Monday an increase in the number of COVID cases not because of the new variants but increased cases of non-compliance with the basic protocols of face masks, distancing, and frequent washing of hands, Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergerie said. The DOH has recorded...
After Secretary Roy Cimatu of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources cleaned up Boracay after five months in 2018, President Duterte told him to clean up Manila Bay next. The secretary looked at the problem posed by Manila Bay, so many times bigger than Boracay, and told the President...
Those of us who remember the fast rising prices of 2018, when the inflation rate hit a high of 6.8 percent in September, are now looking with some concern over the report this weekend that inflation just hit a two-year high of 4.7 percent. The Consumer Price Index went up to 2 percent last January....
The Philippine COVID-19 vaccination program is finally underway. For weeks, we could only read about some countries like the United States innoculating hundreds of millions of their people. The Philippines has now joined their ranks as it began its own mass-vaccination program last Monday,...
It was in 1521 that Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan landed in the Philippines at the head of a Spanish expedition to reach the East by sailing West. He planted a cross and led in the celebration of the first mass in the Philippines on Easter Sunday in what church...
The Department of Education (DepEd) announced early this week that it would extend the school year to July 10 to enable teachers to conduct “intervention and remediation activities” on March 1-12 “to address learning gaps” and give them additional time for the different ...
The Department of Education (DepEd) announced early this week that it would extend the school year to July 10 to enable teachers to conduct “intervention and remediation activities” on March 1-12 “to address learning gaps” and give them additional time for the different ...
Pope Francis begins today the first-ever papal visit to Iraq. It is described as an act of solidarity with an ancient Christian community in Iraq and an outreach to Muslims who dominate the nations of the Middle East. The Pope will voice solidarity with this ancient Christian minority, now...
President Duterte last Friday signed Republic Act 11524 creating the “Coconut Farmers and Industry Trust Fund,” using some P75 billion known as “coco levy funds” generated from taxes collected from coconut farmers, millers, refiners, exporters, and other sectors of the coconut industry...
There is one common thread that runs through most of the news reports we read in our newspapers these days – the COVID-19 pandemic. This weekend, we read that: President Duterte had signed the COVID vaccine law, providing a P500-million indemnity fund as compensation for those who may suffer any...
The drug problem in the country was in the news again last week. This time, however, the news was not about so many killed in police raids or the huge amounts of drugs seized. It was about a ”misencounter” between the men of two government agencies – the Philippine Drug Enforcement...
Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga of Japan has added a “Minister for Loneliness” to his cabinet in the wake of a rise in suicides for the first time in 11 years. “The number of suicides is on a rising trend. I hope you will identify problems and promote policy measures comprehensively,”...
