MANILA – The Office of Civil Defense (OCD) Central Office at Camp Aguinaldo, Quezon City will be temporarily closed until August 30 for disinfection after 116 of its 380 employees tested positive for the coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19). “We regret to inform the public that some members of the Civil Defense staff had tested positive for Covid-19 today (Thursday). For this reason, the OCD Central Office will be temporarily closed to undergo disinfection until 30 August 2021,” National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council (NDRRMC) deputy spokesperson Mark Cashean Timbal said in a media statement. Timbal said the OCD services
MANILA – The high turnout of coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) vaccination might convince President Rodrigo Duterte to allow the resumption of face-to-face (F2F) classes in areas with low-risk classification, Malacañang said on Thursday. This, after the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) urged the governments worldwide to start the “phased reopening” of schools as soon as possible, saying prolonged school closures have an adverse impact on learners. Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque reiterated that Duterte wants the majority of Filipinos to get inoculated against Covid-19 before allowing students to attend in-person classes. “Ang sabi ni Presidente, baka i-consider na niya ang pilot
MANILA – The Quezon City government appealed to the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) to investigate and validate its 2020 census that showed that the city’s population grew by 23,932 only from 2015 to 2020. The 2020 PSA census indicated that there was only a 0.17 percent rise in QC’s population — from 2,936,116 to 2,960,048 in a span of five years. Mayor Joy Belmonte, in a statement issued on Thursday, said the data is far from projections by statisticians that QC’s population will increase by 1.17 percent or to 3.112 million. “Napaka-imposible ng resulta ng census na ito. Paanong nangyari
MANILA – The Commission on Audit (COA) on Thursday said it had no intention to malign the Department of Health (DOH) in publishing its 2020 annual audit report regarding the “deficiencies” in the department’s management of PHP67 billion worth Covid-19 funds. During the virtual hearing of the House Committee on Public Accounts, COA chairman Michael Aguinaldo reiterated that the report did not mention any finding that funds were lost due to corruption. “The auditors did not say that there were any lost funds and that any such lost funds would have been lost to corruption. Wala pong finding na ganun
MANILA – An assurance of the availability of funds for the health care sector and its timely release are expected to help address investors’ concerns regarding government measures targeted to ensure the economy’s recovery, an economist said. Healthcare worker unions recently cited the possibility of strikes among their ranks while a nurses group warned of mass resignation due to delayed payment of benefits amid another surge in coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) infections. “The timely disbursement of funds especially for healthcare workers/medical front-liners would be the solution to these concerns as part of the priorities during the pandemic in view of
MANILA – Speaker Lord Allan Velasco on Thursday assured there would be no reenacted budget for next year as he vowed a swift and smooth passage of the proposed P5.024-trillion national budget by the end of September. Velasco made the statement after the House Committee on Appropriations kicked off its deliberations on the last full-year budget to be enacted under the administration of President Rodrigo Duterte. “We, in the House of Representatives, need to get our act together to ensure swift and smooth passage of the 2022 national budget in order for the government to continue operating and provide much-needed
