March 17, 2021 | 7:39 pm Font Size
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THE PHILIPPINES has banned foreign travelers and returning Filipinos who are not migrant workers, as it faces a fresh spike in coronavirus infections, according to the Presidential Palace.
The National Task Force Against COVID-19 issued a memo on Tuesday ordering agencies to enforce the travel restrictions from Mar. 20 to Apr. 19, presidential spokesman Herminio L. Roque, Jr. said in a statement on Wednesday.
“This is in view of the rising COVID-19 (coronavirus disease 2019) cases and the entry of the coronavirus variants in the country,” he said.
Holders of certain visas, passengers on medical repatriation, distressed migrant workers and those traveling on emergency and humanitarian grounds would be exempted, Mr. Roque said.
UP law profs, 700 others urge SC to probe requests for lawyers of suspected communists
Published March 17, 2021 7:48pm By VIRGIL LOPEZ, GMA News Faculty members of the University of the Philippines College of Law have urged the Supreme Court (SC) to investigate police requests for names of lawyers handling cases of suspected communists. Their appeal to the SC came after they found out through inquiries with other lawyers and court officials that aside from the Calbayog City Regional Trial Court similar requests have also been received by other judges. In a letter signed by UP Law dean Edgardo Carlo Vistan II on Tuesday, the faculty members asked the high court to form a committee that will probe the circumstances behind the requests and the connection, if any, behind such attempts to profile and/or red-tag lawyers.
March 18, 2021 | 12:02 am Font Size
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THE BANGKO SENTRAL ng Pilipinas (BSP) is still not keen on issuing its own central bank digital currency (CBDC) but is open to expanding its knowledge on the subject as the use of virtual assets continues to grow.
“Whether we issue CBDC [or not], the bigger issue maybe is whether we should. We’re not going to issue central bank digital currency just because Singapore [and other countries]…are doing it. We will want to issue CBDC because there are specific problems that we want to solve,” BSP Director for Technology Risk and Innovation Supervision Department Melchor T. Plabasan said in an online forum organized by the European Chamber of Commerce of the Philippines.
Published March 16, 2021 12:42pm Looking at different nations, it is the countries led by women who are successfully combating the COVID-19 pandemic. There s New Zealand s Jacinda Arden, Taiwan s Tsai Ing-wen, and Germany s Angela Merkel just to name a few leaders proactively beating COVID-19. A University of Liverpool research that studied 194 countries said those with the most effective and immediate response to COVID-19 were countries led by women. Aside from having lower COVID-19 cases and death rates, these women-led countries also had a higher number of tests conducted compared to countries led by men. Countries led by women also had a higher recovery rate or number of those who healed from the virus.
Manila, Philippines – The Philippines is facing a surge in coronavirus cases as it marks a year since the government imposed one of the world’s longest lockdowns.
On Monday, the health department reported 5,404 new coronavirus infections – the country’s highest single-day count since August 2020 – exactly a year since the government enforced stringent stay-at-home orders in the country’s most populous regions.
Even high-ranking officials have not been spared: President Rodrigo Duterte’s spokesman Harry Roque on Monday told journalists he had tested positive for COVID-19. A few days earlier, National Police chief Debold Sinas also reported testing positive for the coronavirus.