Antique Governor Rhodora Cadiao has urged her province mates to prepare for Tropical Storm Odette as she announced the temporary suspension of the Binirayan Festival. “Those in the low-lying areas should have to be prepared for any pre-emptive evacuation if needed,” Cadiao said in an interview on Tuesday. She said local government officials have to closely monitor the situation in their localities and be ready to respond to any emergency. The province is preparing food packs through the Provincial Social Welfare and Development Office (PSWDO) to be distributed to the families to be affected by “Odette”, expected to hit the

The Commission on Elections (Comelec) will need more time before it can release the list of official candidates for the May 9, 2022 national and local elections. Comelec spokesperson James Jimenez said the poll body will be needing a couple of weeks more before they can come up with the list due to a number of unresolved cases. It was previously announced that Comelec may come out with the final lineup on Wednesday. “We expect that the process of finalizing the list of candidates will take at least two more weeks,” he said in a statement. “The list of official

As the country braces for Tropical Storm (TS) “Odette”, President Rodrigo Duterte on Monday reminded the public to cooperate with national and local authorities should there be a need for evacuation or other necessary actions. In a prerecorded Talk to the People, Duterte directed government agencies and local government units (LGUs) to ensure that Filipinos, especially those who are on or near the tropical depression’s projected path, to keep monitoring the situation and conduct all necessary preparations and precautions. “Nandiyan naman ‘yan. Iyong dadaanan ng bagyo lumalabas diyan sa news — newspaper pati sa TV (It’s all there. The areas

Quezon City is back as the country’s most competitive city in this year’s Cities and Municipalities Competitiveness Index (CMCI), an annual ranking of cities and municipalities across the country that builds, maps out and tracks local competitiveness. Quezon City landed in the top three in four pillars of the CMCI, which include economic dynamism, government efficiency, infrastructure, and resiliency. Quezon City placed second for economic dynamism, government efficiency, and infrastructure pillars, and third for resiliency pillars. Following Quezon City as the country’s most competitive city is Manila, which slipped by a notch in the ranking. The Philippine capital was CMCI

Exactly two weeks after announcing that he is pulling out of the presidential race, Senator Christopher Lawrence “Bong” Go has officially withdrawn his candidacy at the Commission on Elections (Comelec) office in Manila Tuesday morning. Without fanfare, Go personally submitted his statement of withdrawal before the poll body’s Law Department. The document was received at 10:46 a.m., Comelec records show. “I am no longer in this race to run for the presidency in 2022, I spoke last November 30, I just waited a little while to let my supporters know that my heart and my mind really re-resisted to run

The Western Visayas (Region 6) has been classified as high risk due to the threat of Tropical Storm Odette once it enters the Philippine Area of Responsibility (PAR) Tuesday night or early Wednesday morning. Some 1,111 villages in the region are susceptible to flooding and landslide based on the data of the Mines and Geosciences Bureau (MGB), Civil Defense information officer for Western Visayas Cindy Ferrer, said in a phone interview on Tuesday. Identified are 217 barangays from Aklan; 364, Antique; 78, Capiz; 42, Guimaras; 219 from the city and province of Iloilo; and 191 from Negros Occidental and Bacolod