The “habagat” or the southwest monsoon is set to affect the country’s weather on Saturday. In its 4 a.m. daily weather bulletin, the Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration (PAGASA) said there will be occasional rains over the Ilocos region, Abra, Benguet, Batanes, Babuyan Islands, Zambales, Bataan, and Occidental Mindoro caused by the southwest monsoon. Cloudy skies with scattered rain showers and thunderstorms will prevail over Metro Manila, Calabarzon, the rest of the Cordillera region, the rest of Cagayan Valley, the rest of Central Luzon, Calamian Island, and Antique brought by the “habagat”. The rest of the country will

The Commission on Elections (Comelec) has recorded over five million new registrants as of July 10, less than three months before signup ends. Commissioner Rowena Guanzon on Saturday posted on Twitter that Comelec has processed 5.45 million registrants. “As of July 10, we have around 5.45 million registrants @COMELEC. If we automatically reactivate 6.3 million that would be a record,” her Twitter account @rowena_guanzon read. The nationwide registration will end on September 30. The Comelec has yet to update the approved applications as of the Election Registration Board (ERB) hearing on July 19. The poll body also tackled a possible

Senator Christopher “Bong” Go registered the highest overall trust rating among incumbent senators, according to the latest survey of a political consultancy firm. In its July 13 to19 poll released Saturday, PUBLiCUS Asia Inc. said Go earned the trust of 35.67 percent of 1,500 Filipinos who responded to the 2021 PAHAYAG second-quarter poll. Go’s latest trust rating is a one-percentage-point improvement from the 35.07 percent he got in the previous quarter. As chair of the Committee on Health and Demography, Go principally authored and sponsored the measure that became Republic Act No. 11463, otherwise known as the Malasakit Centers Act

Masses in Catholic churches in the National Capital Region (NCR) will be held virtually in response to the government’s decision to put the region under strict enhanced community quarantine (ECQ) starting next week. In separate advisories released on Friday, the dioceses of Pasig, Cubao, Novaliches, Parañaque, and Caloocan and the Archdiocese of Manila announced the suspension of public Masses in churches and chapels for almost three weeks, from Saturday until August 20. “Starting tomorrow, July 31, 2021 (Saturday) to August 20, 2021 (Friday) there will be no public Masses in all parishes and chapels in the Diocese of Pasig,” the

With the newly imposed heightened restrictions in the National Capital Region (NCR), local carriers canceled a number of their domestic flights, as the government bans non-essential travel to and from the region. These are the canceled flights as of Saturday: Philippine Airlines (PAL) PR 2041, PR 2043 – Manila-Caticlan – July 31 to August 3 PR 2039/2040 – Manila-Caticlan-Manila – July 31 to August 20 PR 2041/2042, PR 2043/2044 – Manila-Caticlan-Manila – August 4 to August 20 PR 2045/2046 – Manila-Caticlan-Manila – July 31 to August 20 PR 2963/2964 – Manila-Busuanga-Manila – August 6 to August 20 PR2781/2782 – Manila-Puerto

Consular operations in all Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) offices and temporary offsite passport centers in Metro Manila, except in Aseana Business Park, will be suspended from August 6 to 20 following the implementation of the enhanced community quarantine (ECQ) in the region. “All DFA Consular Offices and Temporary Off-Site Passport Services (TOPS) in the National Capital Region (NCR) will be closed from 6 to 20 August 2021. Passport applicants affected by the temporary closure of DFA’s Consular Offices and TOPS facilities during this ECQ period will receive separate email advisories with regard to their new appointment schedule,” the department