Manila Standard - 2020 October 22 - Thursday

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‘Young retirees’ trigger shift in Tourism policy

Tourism chief Berna Romulo-Puyat

By Vito Barcelo

T

OURISM chief Bernadette Romulo-Puyat said the Philippine Retirement Authority (PRA) board of trustees would move to repeal its current policy allowing foreigners as young as 35 years old to retire in the Philippines.

"I have directed General Manager (Bienvenido) Chy of the PRA to review and change this long-standing policy. We will move for its immediate repeal," she said in a text message. The board of trustees, chaired by Romulo-Puyat, is expected to meet soon and reassess the said policy. No specific date as regards the meeting, however, has been identified by the agency. Lawmakers, during the DOT budget Next page

Palace has P1 b reasons for Red Cross to resume tests

VOL. XXXIV • NO. 230 • 3 SECTIONS 12 PAGES • P18 THURSDAY, OCTOBER 22, 2020 • www.manilastandard.net • mst.daydesk@gmail.com

By Vito Barcelo and Willie Casas THE government is urging the Philippine Red Cross (PRC) to resume the statefunded coronavirus testing after President Rodrigo Duterte gave his assurance that he will settle the almost P1 billion debt of the Philippine Health Insurance Corp. (PhilHealth), Malacañang said on Wednesday. “The President has committed to pay, I don’t think there’s any reason for Red Cross to doubt that the President committed to pay. And because of this, I believe testing should continue because the Red Cross has been assured that they will be paid,” presidential spokesman Harry Roque said in an interview over CNN Philippines. He said the “controversy should be over” because the President himself committed to settle the P930-million obligation of PhilHealth to the Red Cross. “I think that assurance should be enough for the Red Cross to resume its testing,” the Palace official said. Roque said the government planned to settle at least 50 percent of the debt to Next page

2 more storms brewing after TS Pepito's exit AFTERMATH. Following incessant rain at the height of Tropical Storm Pepito, tons of garbage wash ashore at Manila Bay, blackening the dolomite 'white sand' on Baywalk Beach near the US Embassy, on Wednesday, October 21. In Lopez town of Quezon province, five-foot deep floodwaters render the Candaba Ibaba portion of Maharlika Highway not passable to all types of vehicles while in Dinalungan, Aurora, authorities have a hard timeand clearing the road of fallen trees. Norman Cruz, RDRRMC Calabarzon and Aurora PPO

Full-capacity hotels subject Party’s over: PNP, AFP donate funds to patients to health rules By Macon Ramos-Araneta and Rio N. Araja

THE The Philippine National Police as well as branches of the Armed Forces

By Othel V. Campos and Willie Casas

would not be holding Christmas parties during the Yuletide while the country reels from infections and deaths caused by the deadly coronavuirus pandemic. Both the PNP and the AFP said, in separate statements, funds for the celebration would be given out to help coro-

navirus patients. Armed Forces spokesman Maj. Gen. Edgard Arevalo, in a statement, said AFP chief Gen. Gilbert Gapay had directed all unit commanders and chiefs of offices across the country

COVID-19 PH AT A GLANCE

(AS OF 4 PM OCT. 21)

362,243 TOTAL NUMBER OF CASES

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1,509 43,990

HOTELS are now allowed to operate at full capacity in areas declared under modified community quarantine (MGCQ) and general community quarantine (GCQ), the Department of Tourism announced Wednesday. Tourism Secretary Bernadette Puyat, however, stressed that the decision to open at 100 percent operational capacity will be subject to the hotel management’s decision and compliance with the safety guidelines. The DOT has been given the authority, by the Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF-EID) to allow hotels and accommodation establishments to operate at 100 percent capacity despite the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. The IATF-EID resolution replaces the provision that accommodation establishments in areas under GCQ may only operate with a skeletal work force.

NEW

ACTIVE

6,747

60

311,506

911

DEATHS

RECOVERIES

NEW

NEW

House clarifies P20-b ’errata’ in 2021 budget By Maricel V. Cruz

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'DAY OF DEFIANCE.' Militants and policemen come face- to -face during during a protest rally at the corner of Recto Avenue and Chino Roces (Mendiola Bridge) near Malacanang Palace on October 21, 2020. Farmers and progressive groups stage the “Day of Defiance” rally to demand land reform, respect for human rights and accountability from the Duterte administration. Norman Cruz

’Malampaya funds for health care’ By Maricel V. Cruz

TRAVEL CURBS LIFTED. Non-essential travels like pleasure trips have been allowed since Oct. 21, 2020 but it's eerily quiet at the NAIA Terminal 3. The Bureau of Immigration says there aren't many Filipinos going out of the country and airlines and travel agents are hurting because of low demand in the face of the virus pandemic.

RAINFALL from Tropical Storm "Pepito" flooded parts of Luzon Tuesday evening, particularly in Quezon Province and Pampanga, forcing hundreds of residents to evacuate, authorities said. In Pagalungan, Maguindanao, more than 10,000 residents were displaced by flash floods that hit the low-lying town. Next page

THE House of Representatives' Committee on Health and several other congressmen on Wednesday filed a bill that allows the use of funds from the Malampaya natural gas field in health care. The legislators, led by Reps. Eric Pineda and Virgilio Lacson, filed House Bill 800, that amends Presidential Decree 910

to enable the Congress to allot a portion of the Malampaya funds and other similar Public-Private Partnership projects “to improve the state of public health care.” Both congressmen, who are COVID-19 survivors, discussed the possible use of Malampaya fund during the virtual breakfast forum Kapihan ng Samahang Plaridel Wednesday titled ‘Funding the PH Health care System Amid COVID.’ Next page

THE P20 billion institutional amendments in the House of Representativesapproved version of the proposed P4.5 trillion national budget for 2021 were mere “corrections of style and of errata” and not actual or “literal” changes, a House official said on Wednesday. Senior Deputy Speaker and Oriental Mindoro Rep. Salvador Leachon made the statement after Sen. Panfilo Lacson questioned the move of the House allowing the Executive branch to incorporate “errata” into the national budget. Leachon clarified that the small committee did not introduce amendments to the national budget. He said the passage of the 2021 national budget went through a transparent process, thus its approval was legal and constitutional. “They are more in the way corrections of style and of errata, and they do not add to the total amounts which are already fixed as deliberated upon at the plenary, but rather corrections of style and errata. Next page


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