HARSH REALITY
Tinao family tells of daily struggle to survive By Joyce PangcoPañares
VOL. XXXII • NO. 112 • 3 SECTIONS 16 PAGES • P18 • THURSDAY, JUNE 7, 2018 • www.manilastandard.net • editorial@manilastandard.net
‘I puked because of migraine’
IN POVERTY. A family of five, statistically classified as ‘poor’ or ‘in poverty’
FERDINAND Tinao, a 44year old office messenger, has been living on a hand-to-mouth existence together with his wife and three kids, the youngest only eight months old. With his calloused hands clasped in front of him, Tinao shook his head
because their resources below a specified ‘poverty threshold’ indulge their hunger at lunchtime under a makeshift tent along the coastal Roxas Blvd. In Pasay City on Wednesday. The country’s National Economic Development Authority released in 2016 data showing a family of five must earn a gross monthly income of P120,000—a far cry from P10,000—to live a ‘simple and comfortable life’ which the agency defined as having enough money for day-to-day needs, among others. Lino Santos
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Cost of living: P10k/month? Neda estimate sparks outrage; NAPC urges wage hike Drone-powered AWMAKERS slammed a National Rody threatens umbrella Economic and Development Authority statement Wednesday that a family of five to declare state can decently live on an income of P10,000 per or about P67 per day for each person, even of emergency month as the National Anti-Poverty Commission called By Joel Zurbano and Maricel V. Cruz
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By Vito Barcelo
are asking for a daily minimum wage of P750. Ridiculing the Neda estimate, Senator Panfilo Lacson said Filipino families can survive on P10,000 a month—as long as they stop breathing. ‘‘Actually, we can, but only if my family will eat only once a day, won’t brush our teeth nor take a bath, walk every day to and from our place of work but avoid perspiring so we won’t wash our clothes,” he said. . Lacson added: “And yes, ask my wife to stop watching her favorite telenovela Government employees also sought because I will sell the television set. Ask an increase in their monthly minimum my children to throw away their mobile wage from P10,510 to P16,000. Workers phones so they won’t ask me for ‘pasa in the private sector, on the other hand, loads.’” Next page
for a nationwide wage hike
PRESIDENT Rodrigo Duterte on Wednesday threatened to declare a “state of national emergency,” saying too many crimes were holding back foreign investments. “I am warning the criminals, everybody, whether in the government or outside. I will make radical changes in the days to come,” Duterte said in a news conference shortly after he arrived from Seoul for an official visit. “There’s no difference actually between martial law and a declaration of national emergency. So I’ve been warning all. I’m warning all including the human rights, it’s either we behave or we will have a serious problem again,” he added. He said most foreign companies did not want to come to the Philippines because they were concerned about kidnappings and killings— but did not elaborate. “Well, somehow, even with this meager emergency power, I will use it to the hilt to put things in order,” Duterte said. He also warned erring government agencies that he could not control Next page
NAPC said a nationwide wage hike would benefit 26-million Filipinos who are wage and salary workers and help poor families cope with price surges.
TOKYO—It’s the hands-free experience you never knew you needed—a Japanese company has developed a drone-powered parasol it says can hover over users, protecting them from the sun. Next page
Dengvaxia caused death of 60 kids, PAO insists By Rey E. Requejo THE Dengvaxia vaccine has caused the death of at least 60 schoolchildren documented by the Public Attorney’s Office, the agency’s chief, Persida Rueda-Acosta, said Wednesday. Acosta made this assertion as she disputed the claim of former President Benigno Aquino III and former Health secretary Janette Garin that the deaths cannot be attributed to the vaccine because no causal link has been scientifically established. In their counter-affidavits denying the criminal charges filed against them, Aquino and Garin said the ongoing exhumation and autopsy of cadavers of schoolchildren inoculated with Dengvaxia are not the SANOFI’S VACCINE. This file photo, taken on Dec 5, 2017, shows a nurse displaying proper way to determine the causal link vials of Sanofi’s dengue vaccine Dengvaxia, which has been recalled from local health centers in Manila following suspension of the country’s public dengue immunization since the World Health Organization has Next page
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program. AFP
Comelec: No stopping 2019 Senate polls By Sara Susanne D. Fabunan THERE is no reason to believe that the 2019 senatorial and local elections will be postponed, Commission on Elections spokesman James Jimenez assured the public on Wednesday. Jimenez also said in an interview that
there is so far no “motion or proposal” to postpone the upcoming polls. “Bear in mind that we are less than a year away from a national and local elections,” he added. The reaction was made after a member of President Rodrigo Duterte’s Consultative Next page
Anti-drug random check in schools eyed By Rio N. Araja
MINORS AND MARIJUANA. Chemists of the Philippine Drug and Enforcement Agency arrange 13 kilos of packed marijuana worth P120,000 Wednesday seized from three persons—one adult and two minors—during a buy-bust operation in Sampaloc Manila. The three are in PDEA custody. Manny Palmero
Warriors ready for road test
METRO Manila Police Chief Guillermo Eleazar on Wednesday proposed implementing random bag and locker inspections in schools. He made the statement even as the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency said it was closely monitoring the involvement
of some media personalities in the illegal drug trade. According to a report by GMA News’ Tina Panganiban Perez on Balitanghali, Eleazar made the proposal to nip the country’s drug problem in the bud. He said the 44,000 drug suspects arrested and the 234,000 who surrendered Next page
US designer Spade dead at 55 DESIGNER Kate Spade, one of the biggest names in American fashion known especially for her sleek handbags, was found dead Tuesday in her New York apartment. She was 55. Next page