Day: August 2, 2024

MANILA: Senator Joel Villanueva said on Friday he will continue to help the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) to improve its services, especially in times of disasters. Villanueva made the assurance following the ceremonial turnover and inspection of 11 delivery trucks and heavy-duty forklifts at the DSWD National Resource Operations Center (NROC) in Pasay City. The NROC is a production resource center which can produce an average of 20,000 food packs a day. It basically serves the entire Luzon cluster, but can also provide augmentation supply to other regions in times of calamity. “Kailangan talaga i-capacitate natin nang

MANILA: Net income of the country’s largest coal producer, Semirara Mining and Power Corp. (SMPC), declined in the first half of the year by 34 percent, to PHP12.6 billion from PHP19.2 billion in the same period in 2023, due to weaker coal prices and higher coal production costs. In a disclosure to the Philippine Stock Exchange on Friday, SMPC said the company’s second quarter performance further dragged the already weak earnings in the first quarter of the year. In Q2 2024, earnings declined by 41 percent to PHP6 billion from PHP10.2 billion in the same period a year ago. In

MANILA: The Philippine Coast Guard (PCG) placed a second layer of oil spill booms at the ground zero of the sunken MT Terra Nova to help contain the spread of leaks. The oil spill booms were placed by PCG personnel aboard BRP Sindangan. ‘Private vessels are also working to stabilize oil spill booms and conducting sea surveillance for possible oil sightings,’ it said in a situation update Friday. Earlier, the vessel had all of its valves and ‘high-level alarm pipes’ capped with capping bags, which will later be replaced with metal caps in two weeks. The PCG assured that the

ISTANBUL: American artistic gymnast Simone Biles became the oldest all-around champion since 1952. The 27-year-old American gymnast outlasted second-place Brazil’s Rebeca Andrade and her third-place teammate Sunisa Lee. “Biles dazzled once again, earning a 59.131 total in the all-around, holding off Andrade (57.932). Tokyo 2020 champ Suni Lee finished with the bronze at 56.465,” the Olympics said in a statement. She bagged the biggest title in the women’s category of her sport since then-30-year-old Soviet gymnast Maria Gorokhovskaya won the first-ever Olympic all-around in Melbourne in 1952. Biles also broke a 120-year-old record to become the only US gymnast to

MANILA: Aira Villegas celebrated one of her most memorable birthdays with a unanimous decision win over Roumaysa Boualam of Algeria in the Paris Olympics women’s boxing 50kg round of 16 early Friday (PH time) at North Paris Arena. She turned 29 on Aug. 1 and immediately made the quarterfinals against France’s Wassila Lkhadiri. Their match is set Saturday at 3:20 a.m. (PH time). Nesthy Petecio (women’s 57kg), will follow against first-time Olympian Amina Zidani of France for a similar spot in the quarterfinals. Carlo Paalam (men’s 57kg) will face Australian Charlie Senior in the quarterfinals at about 9:30 p.m. The