Governor Daniel Fernando on Thursday advised his constituents to prepare for tighter restrictions as the province will be under modified enhanced community quarantine (MECQ) with localized lockdowns from Aug. 16 to 31. Fernando said the measure is due to the continuous increase in coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) cases, including seven cases of the highly transmissible Delta variant. He said the instructions of the Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF) are expected to be stricter compared to the province’s current quarantine category of general community quarantine (GCQ) with heightened restrictions until Aug. 15. He also said
Government anti-illegal drugs enforcers seized 1,783 tablets of suspected ecstasy in an inbound parcel from Germany delivered to a consignee here at past noon Thursday. Gil Cesario Castro, Cordillera Administrative Region (CAR) regional director of the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA), said the parcel was discovered by the personnel of the anti-illegal drugs task group at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) when a canine dog sat on it during a random “sweeping” operation. The task group is composed of personnel from PDEA, Bureau of Customs (BOC), and the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI). The task group organized the operation
President Rodrigo Duterte has ordered the Department of Health (DOH) to explain the reported “deficiencies” found by the Commission on Audit (COA) in the agency’s handling of PHP67.32 billion in Covid-19 funds in 2020, Malacañang said on Thursday. Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque said Duterte is “withholding judgment” until after the DOH submits an explanation on the questionable handling of funds and COA releases its final audit report. “Ang instruction ng Presidente sagutin mabuti ang mga observation ng COA (The President’s instruction is for the DOH to answer COA’s observations),” Roque said in a Palace press briefing. He assured that Duterte
President Rodrigo Duterte has approved the release of funds worth PHP3.78 billion for low-income households in areas under the enhanced community quarantine (ECQ), an official from the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) said on Thursday. In a message to reporters, DILG Undersecretary Jonathan Malaya said this includes PHP2.72 billion for Laguna and PHP700 million for Bataan. These two provinces were placed under the strictest quarantine status on Aug. 6 and 8, respectively. Meanwhile, the National Capital Region will also receive a PHP368 million supplemental budget for the grant of the financial assistance. DILG Secretary Eduardo Año earlier
National Task Force (NTF) Against Covid-19 deputy chief implementer Vivencio Dizon said the government targets to administer 1 million doses of vaccines against coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) in a day. In a Palace briefing Monday, Dizon said the NTF aims to further accelerate vaccination across the country amid the threats of faster-spreading Delta variant. He said the country hit its highest daily vaccination last week of 710,482 jabs. “But again, the biggest challenge is still the supply,” he added in Filipino. The NTF official said that once the country gets its order from vaccine manufacturers, more than 750,000 jabs can
National Security Adviser Hermogenes Esperon Jr. on Monday rebuked critics who suggested that the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC) funds should be diverted to the Covid-19 efforts, arguing that each of the previously “neglected” barangay even deserves more than the PHP20 million allotted to them under the flagship Barangay Development Program (BDP). At the weekly virtual press conference of NTF-ELCAC dubbed “TAGGED: Debunking lies by telling the truth”, Esperon said critics’ statements regarding the budget to counter the Communist Party of the Philippines-New People’s Army-National Democratic Front (CPP-NPA-NDF) were “self-serving” “political statements” meant to entice
