The country along with the rest of the world needs a COVID-19 vaccine. The government has banned mass gatherings where the virus can spread. But even now, there are so many living in cramped shanties in neighborhoods with narrow alleys and they are all extremely vulnerable. COVID-19 has already...
It is now all in the hands of a Bicameral Conference Committee which will draw up the final form of the 2021 General Appropriations Bill (GAB). The committee met Tuesday on the House and the Senate versions of the national budget bill of P4.5 trillion. “We will encode it by December 9 and have...
The Metro Manila Development Authority (MMDA) began closing intersections in 2003 under a program called “Big Rotonda Scheme,” initially along Quezon Ave. from España to Commonwealth Ave., then along Epifanio delos Santos Ave. (EDSA). The goal was to speed up traffic along main thoroughfares....
Two dams were in the news last week – or rather, an old established dam in Isabela and a proposed one in Quezon Province. The Magat Dam in the Magat River, the largest tributary of the Cagayan River, the longest river in the Philippines, was built in 1975-1982 primarily for irrigation,...
In the face of the bad news from Europe and the United States (US), where a second wave of COVID-19 infections is sweeping many communities, it is reassuring to know that vaccines are now being mass-produced and many countries are drawing up agreements with the vaccine producers. Two US vaccines...
In the wake of the widespread floods in Cagayan and Isabela caused by rains from a series of storms and typhoons¸ a number of projects have been proposed by various sectors, including dredging of the Cagayan River, construction of a temporary embankment, and reforestation of the surrounding...
President Duterte has received from Presidential Anti-Corruption Commission (PACC) Commissioner Greco Belgica a list of lawmakers believed involved in corruption in the implementation of public works projects by private contractors. He said he will send the list to the Ombudsman, saying it is...
When William Dar took over as secretary of the Department of Agriculture in August, 2019, he proposed a new strategy for agriculture built around eight programs – modernization of agriculture, industrialization of agriculture, promotion of exports, farm consolidation, roadmap development,...
When the government’s COVID-19 restrictions began in March, few of us expected that the disease would last the way it has. We had read about plagues like the bubonic plague that killed a third of the world population, mostly in Europe, in 1350. There was the cholera pandemic that originated in...
The COVID-19 pandemic is still with us and in the rest of the world, where it is surging in a new wave of infections and deaths. We are fortunate the virus has not been as virulent in our country as it has been in the United States, India, Brazil, France, Russia, Spain , United Kingdom, Argentina,...
Of ten COVID-19 candidate vaccines in their final human trials, two reported highly promising initial results of their final Phase 3 human trials early this month. American drugmaker Pfizer, in partnership with Germany’s BioNTech¸ announced on November 9 that tests showed that its vaccine was...
The immediate need in Luzon is for continued rescue and relief work for the people who lost  their homes in the wake of typhoon Ulysses, the latest of a series of storms and typhoons that swept in from the Pacific  in a span of three weeks. It  was initially reported that Ulysses...
