PHILIPPINE ECONOMY GROWS 5.6 PERCENT IN 2021, EXCEEDS TARGET
MANILA - The Philippine economy posted a faster-than-expected at 5.6 percent growth rate in 2021 as looser COVID-19 restrictions propelled recovery, with GDP growing 7.7 percent in the fourth quarter, the state statistics bureau said Thursday.
The 2021 GDP growth is also above the 5 to 5.5 percent target set by the Development and Budget Coordination Committee in December.
Fourth-quarter growth was higher compared to the previous quarter, which was revised to 6.9 percent from 7.1 percent, and contrasted with the -8.3 percent growth rate in the same period in 2020, the Philippine Statistics Authority said.
Last year’s GDP growth was a significant rebound compared to the 9.6 percent contraction in 2020, largely due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
National Statistician Dennis Mapa noted that nominal GDP last year was very close to the nominal GDP pre-pandemic.
He said the GDP in 2020 fell to P17.939 trillion, but rebounded to P19.387 trillion in 2021, while it was P19.518 trillion in 2019.
“So if we compare 2021 versus 2019, current prices, we are down by about P131 billion or estimated 0.7 percent,” Mapa said.
The PSA said the main contributors to the fourth quarter and full-year growth were: manufacturing; wholesale and retail trade; repair of motor vehicles and motorcycles; and construction.
“Among the major economic sectors, Agriculture, forestry, and fishing, Industry and Services all posted positive growths in the fourth quarter with 1.4 percent, 9.5 percent, and 7.9 percent, respectively,” the PSA said.
Industry and services registered positive annual growths of 8.2 percent and 5.3 percent, respectively. However, agriculture, forestry, and fishing posted a contraction of -0.3 percent, the PSA noted.
Economic managers are projecting the economy to grow between 7 to 9 percent this year.
Moody’s Investors Service meanwhile said it expects the Philippine economy to grow 6.8 percent this year, citing the continuing risk of new COVID-19 variants emerging.
“The recovery story is there, we think, perhaps not as strongly as government believes, but we think it’s intact,” said Christian de Guzman, senior vice president at Moody’s.
DUTERTE PICKS OP'S MICHAEL PASTORES ONG AS NEW APPEALS COURT JUSTICE
MANILA — President Rodrigo Duterte has appointed an official of the Office of the President as the new Court of Appeals associate justice.
Duterte picked Senior Deputy Executive Secretary Michael Pastores Ong to take over the post vacated by Samuel Gaerlan, who was appointed to the Supreme Court in January 2020.
Ong’s appointment paper is dated May 20, 2021, but the SC only received the document late Wednesday afternoon.
“He will take his oath before Chief Justice Gemsundo at 10am today,” the SC Public Information Office added.
Ong has been serving the government for more than 15 years. He rendered services at the SC as a court attorney and at the PNOC Exploration Corporation as corporate legal counsel.
At the Malacañang, Ong served in the Office of the Chief Presidential Legal Counsel and the Office of the Deputy Executive Secretary for Legal Affairs.
‘DUTERTE’S BLIND ITEM COULD BE A BASIS FOR CASE’
MANILA — President Duterte’s blind item about his potential successors, if related to corruption or criminal conduct, should be a basis for pursuing a case in the Sandiganbayan or regular courts, a spokesman for Partido Reporma presidential candidate Panfilo Lacson said yesterday.
Former congressman Ashley Acedillo said their camp will just wait for the pronouncement of the President.
“Abangan,” said Acedillo. “We’ll just wait to hear from President Duterte what he thinks of the different candidates running to succeed him in June 2022.”
Duterte said he will expose the issues hounding the candidates vying for the top job. He even described one of the presidential aspirants as corrupt.
Acedillo noted that if grounded on facts and evidence, the President’s pronouncement will be helpful to the voters still on the fence as to who to vote for while allowing others to change their minds if they feel their chosen candidates are wanting either in integrity, capability or potential.
ROBREDO REJECTS WAR WITH CHINA TO DEFEND WEST PHILIPPINE SEA
MANILA — Vice President Leni Robredo said there is no need to wage war against China to defend the West Philippine Sea, stressing that Manila should use its victory against Beijing before an arbitral tribunal to build a “coalition of nations” that would protect the waters.
“We don’t need to wage war. What we need to do is to enter into alliances with traditional and emerging partners, allies, so they can help us protect the West Philippine Sea,” Robredo, who is running for president, said in Filipino in an interview with entertainment host Boy Abunda that premiered Wednesday.
She said forging alliances by leveraging the 2016 arbitral ruling that invalidated China’s historical claim over much of the South China Sea, including portions within the Philippines’ exclusive economic zone, is a “low-hanging fruit.”
Aside from this, the vice president said the Philippines can pursue multilateral talks with China and strengthen its defense.
President Rodrigo Duterte has often warned that raising the Philippines’ arbitral win against China will result in a war between the two countries.
But maritime law expert Jay Batongbacal said in an episode of Philstar.com’s Anyare? that the Philippines has the means to defend its sovereign rights over the West Philippine Sea without waging war against China.
ROBREDO TO ALLOW ICC PROBE ON DUTERTE'S 'DRUG WAR'
MANILA — Vice President Leni Robredo said that she will allow investigators from the International Criminal Court to probe President Rodrigo Duterte's brutal campaign against drugs should she become his successor in Malacañang.
“I will allow it. It will be very open, very transparent. If there is nothing to hide, there is nothing to fear,” Robredo said in Filipino in an interview with entertainment host Boy Abunda that premiered on Wednesday.
Not only will she let ICC investigators come to the Philippines to conduct their probe on the “drug war,” where crimes against humanity are alleged to have occurred, Robredo said she will also push for the country to rejoin the international tribunal.
“I will propose that we restore our membership with the ICC because this is very important to keep government in check,” she said.
ROBREDO TO REVERSE DUTERTE LIFTING OF MINING BAN, LISTEN TO AFFECTED COMMUNITIES
MANILA — Vice President Leni Robredo said she would scrap the Duterte administration's order allowing new mining agreements if she wins in the May polls.
In April last year, Duterte lifted a nine-year-old ban on new mining agreements in a bid to revitalize the mining industry and bring more money into the country after the economic slowdown brought by the COVID-19 pandemic.
"Ipapawalang-bisa ko. Para sa’kin, napakahalaga pagdating sa usapin ng environment na binibigyan at ini-empower ‘yung mga maapektuhan,” Robredo said in an interview with television host Boy Abunda on Wednesday.
The Department of Environment and Natural Resources also issued an order lifting a four-year-old ban on open-pit mining in December.
The presidential candidate said she is for "sustainable" mining.
"Pero para sa’kin kasi ‘yung sustainability ma-attain lang natin ‘yung pag meron tayong maayos na mekanismo para ‘yung mga nakatira doon, ‘yung mga taong mangangalaga ay binibigyan natin ng boses," Robredo said.
She added that communities residing in these areas, especially indigenous peoples, should receive the most benefits from mineral extraction.
Robredo also said the passage of the National Land Use Act is needed to identify no-mining zones in the country.
"Kailangan mapasa na ‘yun (land use bill) bilang batas dahil ‘yun ‘yung magsasabi, ‘yun yung magpapanukala alin bang mga lugar dito sa bansa natin ang kailangan ideklara na mga no-mining zones," she said.
ASKED ABOUT MARTIAL LAW ABUSE, MARCOS QUESTIONS AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL DATA
MANILA — Instead of commenting on people reportedly killed, tortured and imprisoned during the Marcos dictatorship, presidential aspirant Ferdinand "Bongbong" Marcos Jr. cast doubt on Amnesty International, a rights group that sent missions to the Philippines during Martial Law.
Boy Abunda, in a one-on-one interview with Marcos that aired Tuesday, asked the presidential aspirant whether data from Amnesty International were just lies.
"According to Amnesty International during your father’s presidency, from 1972 to 1981, about 72,000 were imprisoned, 34,000 were tortured and 3,240 were killed. Tanong: Itong data ba na galing sa Amnesty International, Sen. Bongbong, ito ba ay pawang kasinungalingan lamang (Are these just lies)?"
Marcos said he had not seen the international watchdog’s data and that he has no idea how they came up with the statistics.
“Let us ask Amnesty International to share that information that they have and maybe it will help us make sure that the system works and what alleged abuses occurred should not occur again. I think that’s the only way that we can remedy that situation,” he said.
In a statement, Amnesty International Philippines said that it will send Marcos copies of the reports on human rights violations during the elder Marcos' dictatorship.
"Anyone running for president who says they do not know how public information on human rights violations during martial law were generated is blatantly denying history," AI Philippines section director Butch Olano said.
STOP BALLOT PRINTING, COMELEC URGED
MANILA — Election lawyer Romulo Macalintal has urged the Commission on Elections (Comelec) to stop the printing of official ballots that will be used in the May 9 national and local elections as it excluded candidates who secured their respective temporary restraining orders (TROs) against their disqualifications.
In a statement yesterday, Macalintal said the Comelec should first get the clearance or clarifications from the Supreme Court (SC) as far as the TROs granted to certain candidates and a party-list group whose names were excluded in the official ballots are concerned.
The Comelec pushed through with the final ballot face without the names of Wilson Amad, who is running for vice president, Norman Marquez for senator and the party-list group Juan Pinoy despite the TROs granted to them by the SC against the Comelec’s decision to disqualify them in the May elections.
“Indeed, the Comelec should have first advised the SC that it could no longer obey its restraining order before it started printing the ballots and should have asked for authority from the SC to proceed with the printing of the ballots despite the existence of said TROs on certain candidates,” Macalintal said.
“The Comelec has all the time to seek such clarification from the SC and advise the court of its plan to start printing the ballots instead of just saying that ‘the ballots are ready to go, so we went ahead’ which practically ignored the restraining orders of the court,” he added.
SENATE CONCURS WITH RATIFICATION OF TREATY VS ILLEGAL WEAPONS TRADE
MANILA — The Senate on Wednesday passed a resolution supporting the ratification of the United Nations' (UN) Arms Trade Treaty (ATT), an agreement which aims to establish international standards in regulating the trade of conventional weapons in efforts to prevent them from falling into wrong hands.
Senator Aquilino "Koko" Pimentel III, chair of the trade, commerce and entrepreneurship committee, assured that the adoption of the treaty will not "negatively" affect the local arms industry.
Sixteen senators voted in favor of ratifying the international treaty. There were no votes against it.
Six senators opted to abstain from voting on the resolution: Senate President Pro Tempore Ralph Recto, Senate Majority Leader Juan Miguel Zubiri, and Sens. Ronald "Bato" Dela Rosa, Christopher "Bong" Go, Grace Poe and Francis Tolentino.
Ratification of treaties and international agreements requires the vote of at least two-thirds of all the members of the upper house.
HOUSE RATIFIES BICAM REPORT REGULATING VAPE USE
MANILA — The House of Representatives ratified last night the bicameral conference committee report on the bill that aims to regulate the use of vaporized nicotine and non-nicotine products or vapes.
The measure was approved overwhelmingly during a hybrid plenary session of Congress’ lower chamber.
The reconciled bill from the Senate and the House prohibits posts, messages or images by manufacturers, importers, distributors and retailers that will encourage the purchase and use of vape products.
It also provides regulations on the importation, manufacture, sale, packaging, distribution, use and communication of vape products and novel tobacco products, which is one way of giving smokers the chance to quit smoking.
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822 DAVAO HOUSES LOCKED DOWN
DAVAO CITY — A total of 822 houses aside from a building and a compound in this city have been locked down due to a surge in COVID-19 cases.
Mayor Sara Duterte-Carpio said the city government utilized 1,112 personnel to enforce the lockdown.
“This is the second week of the surge. Our active cases are 6,899 and still expected to climb as we are still a long way off to peak in this Omicron surge,” Carpio said.
The city is under Alert Level 3 until the end of the month.
Carpio said the city government would continue to implement the Prevent, Detect, Isolation, Treat, Reintegration or PDITR strategy to address the increase in cases.
She said contact tracing remains a challenge as contact tracers depend only on the honesty of the patients. The Safe Davao QR is not consistently used, she added.
MORE TEACHERS FALL VICTIMS TO BANK CYBERSCAM
MANILA — The number of teachers who have filed complaints about phishing and hacking incidents on their payroll accounts has increased to 24.
The Teacher’s Dignity Coalition said it filed the complaints with the Department of Education (DepEd). Benjo Basas, the coalition’s national chairperson, said they have received about 50 complaints.
More teachers came forward after reports of phishing incidents were reported last week.
Basas said multiple unauthorized withdrawals were made on the teachers’ payroll accounts, ranging from P900 up to P200,000.
He noted that the common denominator of the teachers is that they received multiple one-time pin or OTP attempts on their bank accounts.
Even if the teachers did not provide their OTP, the transactions still went through with the Land Bank of the Philippines.
The coalition urged the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas to look into the alleged bank cyberscam.
SOLDIER KILLED IN ABU SAYYAF ATTACK
MANILA — A soldier was killed and two others were wounded in a gun attack by Abu Sayyaf bandits in the outskirts of Patikul, Sulu on Tuesday.
The Joint Task Force Sulu confirmed that soldiers belonging to the 45th Infantry Battalion were on their way to their headquarters when they were fired at by an undetermined number of Abu Sayyaf bandits along the Tugar-Maligay road in Barangay Tugas.
The military said the bandits retreated when the troops returned fire.
The fatality was identified only as Pvt. Tawasil and the wounded as Pvts. Morales and Molkeri.
Brig. Gen. Antonio Bautista, Joint Task Force Sulu and 11th Infantry Division (ID) officer-in-charge, said pursuit operations for the bandits are underway.
ENTERTAINMENT & LIFESTYLE
SARAH LAHBATI URGES WOMEN TO EMBRACE THEIR FLAWS
MANILA -- Actress and celebrity mom Sarah Lahbati admitted that it took a while before she finally learned to accept her stretch marks, which she described as her biggest insecurity.
Sharing photos of her wearing a two-piece bikini on Instagram, Lahbati urged all women, and especially mothers like her, to embracing their flaws.
"I’m tired of hiding my stretch marks. I’m not perfect. No one is. What’s funny is it took me awhile to accept that. My biggest insecurity. To love me fully. To fully accept me. I’ve always been ready to give all of me for my loved ones but never poured that same cup to myself," Lahbati wrote.
Lahbati said she realized that her stretch marks are actually her best "tattoos" as a woman.
"A reminder that I am a strong and resilient woman whose been through a lot but most importantly, I’ve given birth to my two dearest sons, Zion and Kai. My angels. I am loved, understood and cherished by my husband. I couldn’t ask for anything more," she added.
Lahbati also reminded women about self-worth and self-love.
"This may sound dumb to you, but I just wanna let you know that you are enough and beautiful. I’m grateful to be alive, to be loved, messy, and to be fully myself. Wouldn’t have it any other way. Took awhile for me to get here. But here I am. Proud. Cheers to all of you, women," Lahbati said.
In the comment section of her post, Lahbati received positive reactions from her fans and fellow celebrities.
Her husband Richard Gutierrez also left the message: "Proud of you my love."
Lahbati and Gutierrez will mark their second wedding anniversary on March 14.
SPORTS
NBA SCORES JAN 25
FINAL
1 2 3 4 T
Hornets26-22 27 34 25 27 113
Raptors23-22 39 37 29 20 125
SCOTIABANK ARENA, TORONTO, ON
SCORING LEADERS
L. Ball CHA
25 PTS 3 REB 7 AST
G. Trent Jr. TOR
32 PTS 2 REB 2 AST
FINAL
1 2 3 4 T
Nuggets25-21 34 35 28 13 110
Pistons11-36 32 27 26 20 105
LITTLE CAESARS ARENA, DETROIT, MI
SCORING LEADERS
N. Jokic DEN
28 PTS 21 REB 9 AST
C. Cunningham DET
34 PTS 8 REB 8 AST
FINAL
1 2 3 4 T
Clippers24-25 23 13 40 40 116
Wizards23-25 32 34 27 22 115
CAPITAL ONE ARENA, WASHINGTON, DC
SCORING LEADERS
A. Coffey LAC
29 PTS 5 REB 1 AST
B. Beal WAS
23 PTS 9 REB 6 AST
FINAL
1 2 3 4 T
Pelicans18-29 24 34 28 21 107
76ers28-19 20 30 36 31 117
WELLS FARGO CENTER, PHILADELPHIA, PA
SCORING LEADERS
N. Alexander-Walker NO
31 PTS 4 REB 5 AST
J. Embiid PHI
42 PTS 14 REB 4 AST
FINAL
1 2 3 4 T
Lakers24-24 33 29 30 14 106
Nets29-18 25 28 25 18 96
BARCLAYS CENTER, BROOKLYN, NY
SCORING LEADERS
L. James LAL
33 PTS 7 REB 6 AST
J. Harden BKN
33 PTS 12 REB 11 AST
FINAL
1 2 3 4 T
Kings18-31 13 17 25 20 75
Celtics25-24 38 25 34 31 128
TD GARDEN , BOSTON, MA
SCORING LEADERS
B. Hield SAC
11 PTS 5 REB 1 AST
J. Tatum BOS
36 PTS 4 REB 6 AST
FINAL
1 2 3 4 T
Spurs18-30 34 32 39 29 134
Rockets14-34 23 28 23 30 104
TOYOTA CENTER, HOUSTON, TX
SCORING LEADERS
D. Murray SA
19 PTS 5 REB 10 AST
K. Porter HOU
16 PTS 5 REB 9 AST
FINAL
1 2 3 4 T
Mavericks27-21 20 31 27 14 92
Warriors35-13 29 34 34 33 130
CHASE CENTER, SAN FRANCISCO, CA
SCORING LEADERS
L. Doncic DAL
25 PTS 8 REB 3 AST
J. Kuminga GS
22 PTS 5 REB
FINAL
1 2 3 4 T
Timberwolves24-23 26 29 29 25 109
Trail Blazers20-27 29 34 19 25 107
MODA CENTER AT THE ROSE QUARTER, PORTLAND, OR
SCORING LEADERS
A. Edwards MIN
40 PTS 9 REB
N. Little POR
20 PTS 8 REB 2 AST
INDICATORS
FOREX $1 = P 51.29
THOUGHT FOR THE DAY
No time. Saddest words ever spoken or written. - Og Mandino
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