A judge in the U.S. state of Florida ruled Friday that school districts in the state may issue mask mandates for students, dealing a blow to the effort by Governor Ron DeSantis and other officials to block such orders. Judge John Cooper of the Sunshine State’s Second Judicial Circuit said that Florida’s school districts may impose strict mask mandates on students to curb the spread of Covid-19 handing a defeat to DeSantis, whose administration has insisted on leaving decisions over whether to let children wear masks to their parents and had threatened to withhold funding for the first two school

Parents in Antique province have been urged to provide their children with “home learning spaces” so they could have a conducive area to study in the absence of face-to-face classes. Antique’s Parent-Teachers Association (PTA) Federation president Helen Ybera, in an interview Friday, said with learners staying mostly inside their homes while working on their modules or attending their radio or television-based classes, “it would be good if the children would also have learning spaces with tables and chairs that they could use during their classes.” This setup will give a semblance of being inside their classrooms, Ybera said. She said

MANILA – All foreign research vessels that enter the country’s maritime domain without the authorization or permit of the Philippine government are always protested, National Security Adviser (NSA), Secretary Hermogenes Esperon Jr. said. “We continue to monitor marine scientific research vessels that (go) into our maritime domain without the permit of the Philippines there, immediately protested by the Department of Foreign Affairs. Any unnecessary swarming of vessels around our stations, especially Pagasa is protested. The turning off of the automatic identity system (AIS) for vessels is also protested and many other things,” he said during the virtual press conference on

Operatives of the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) 9 (Zamboanga Peninsula), backed by policemen and soldiers, have arrested 11 people and seized about PHP340,000 from three dismantled drug dens in this city, an official announced Saturday. All three drug dens were dismantled in Barangay Sta. Catalina on Friday evening, head of PDEA-Zamboanga City, Jury Rocamora, said. Rocamora identified the arrested suspects as Edgardo Ogdamia, alias Ponny; Reynerio Alviar, alias Yoyong; Raymundo Alviar; Peter Abella; Julian Esona Jr.; Arnold Agnan; Tomasito Francisco, alias Notnot; Francis Selestial; Christian Bangcuyo; Julban Andat; and Gerry Son. He said Ogdamia, an alleged drug den maintainer,