The chair of the House Ways and Means Committee on Monday said the country’s economic managers should prepare a contingency plan to insulate the Philippines from spillover effects as China’s economic growth slowed to 4.9 percent in the third quarter amid the debt crisis surrounding property giant Evergrande’s debt crisis. Albay Rep. Joey Salceda said it is best to prepare a “low-hanging package” that includes fast-tracking infrastructure next year, increasing food production, a proactive rollback of policy rate reductions early next year, and continued spending on the emergency employment fund to assist displaced workers amid the pandemic. Salceda said the

The Cebu City Police Office (CCPO) on Monday cited the role of watchmen or the barangay peace and security officers (BPSO) here in reducing crime incidents in the communities. Lt. Col. Wilbert Parilla, CCPO deputy chief for operations, said the new director of the Police Regional Office PRO-7 (Central Visayas), Brig. Gen. Roque Eduardo Vega, has required the 12 police stations in the city to reduce their crime volume by 30 percent. “In Cebu City, supposed to be, we have the maximum of 14 incidents on the crime volume per week. But for the week of Oct. 10 to 16,

A series of small and shallow earthquakes recorded in Camarines Sur from October 14 to 18 may cause non-structural damage, the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology (Phivolcs) said on Monday. A magnitude 4.3 earthquake occurred at around 10:08 p.m. on October 14, some 3 kilometers northwest of the municipality of Canaman. It had a depth of 4 kilometers. Since then until 1:22 a.m. Monday, the Phivolcs monitoring station in San Jose town has recorded 27 small earthquakes ranging from 1.7 to 4.3 magnitude and with crustal shallow depths between 1 and 40 kilometers There has been no similar event

President Rodrigo Duterte has signed into law Republic Act 11592 or the LPG Industry Regulation Act that will regulate the domestic liquefied petroleum gas industry and ensure consumer protection against malpractices. The law was signed on October 14 and the copy of the document released on Monday. The new law establishes an LPG Cylinder Improvement Program to ensure the quality of all cylinders in circulation with the goal of protecting the end-consumers. The LPG Cylinder Exchange and Swapping Program also allows the “exchange, swapping, and buyback of LGP cylinders, the computation of the depreciated value of LPG cylinders, and the

All public and private cemeteries and columbaria in this province will be temporarily closed from October 29 to November 5 as the nation continues to contain the spread of coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19), the Nueva Ecija Inter-Agency Task Force (NEIATF) said on Monday. The NEIATF headed by Gov. Aurelio Umali passed Resolution No. 7-2021 aimed at preventing the influx of people to cemeteries. Huge public events and gatherings are being prevented in the province to avoid transmission of the virus that has inflicted hundreds of million people from around the world since March 2020. The NEIATF said people may visit

The Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) on Monday lauded the resolution of the Commission on Human Rights (CHR) Region 5 (Bicol) stating that collegiate football player Kieth Absalon and his cousin Nolven suffered human rights violations and abuse during the unprovoked attack by communist terrorists last June. The CHR Bicol’s resolution, dated July 7, stemmed from complaints filed by Nolven’s mother, Cristine T. Absalon, and Vilma B. Absalon, mother of Kieth. The resolution also said the victims’ families and heirs must get due compensation. “Senseless violence that victimizes innocent civilians has no place in a democratic, progressive society such