Manila Standard - 2020 December 11 - Friday

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P4.5-TRILLION BUDGET SET FOR DUTERTE SCRUTINY NEXT WEEK However, he said, the President will By Vito Barcelo, Maricel V. Cruz use his power of line veto as he did in and Macon Ramos-Araneta MALACANANG welcomed the early passage of the proposed P4.506-trillion national budget for 2021 in Congress, and assured the public that President Rodrigo Duterte will still exercise his power to scrutinize the budget and use his line-item veto power if necessary. “We will use necessary steps to ensure that the government will operate on a new budget by Jan. 1, 2021,” presidential spokesman Harry Roque said.

2019, when he removed P95.37 worth of public works appropriations that had been realigned after the budget was ratified. Congress on Wednesday approved the 2021 national budget, which is expected to drive the country’s COVID-19 pandemic response and recovery efforts. The 2021 general appropriation bill sets aside P72.5 billion for the purchase of COVID-19 vaccines, which

PH targets China vaccine VOL. XXXIV • NO. 280 • 3 SECTIONS 12 PAGES • P18 • FRIDAY, DECEMBER 11, 2020 • www.manilastandard.net • mst.daydesk@gmail.com

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AstraZeneca, Pfizer also eyed to innoculate 70m Filipinos

By Willie Casas, Macon Ramos-Araneta and Vito Barcelo

HE first vaccines against COVID-19 that will be used in the Philippines will come from China’s Sinovac Biotech, despite the company’s history of bribing Chinese regulators from 2002 to 2011, a Palace spokesman said Thursday.

T

Presidential spokesman Harry Roque identified Sinovac, as the first among three manufacturers that will supply the Philippines with COVID-19 vaccines next year. The other two are OxfordAstraZeneca and Pfizer-BioNTech. “The target remains that Sinovac[’s Coronavac] will be the first that we can use to vaccinate our people and it will be in the first quarter of next year,” Roque said in a virtual Palace briefing. Vaccines from Pfizer-BioNTech would probably come by the second or third quarter of 2021, he added. Roque said there was no danger of bribery in this case, and said only safe and effective vaccines could secure

CURE FOR COVID?

A package of the Coronavac (Sinovac) vaccine is shown in this file photo dated Dec. 2, 2020. The China-made vaccine is among three anti-virus drugs that the Philippine government will acquire to innoculate 70 million Filipinos within the next three years. AFP

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Vaccine diplomacy seen boosting Beijing image DOH gift list and other Yule revelry no-nos AS WEALTHY countries scramble to buy up the limited supply of big-name coronavirus vaccines, China is stepping in to offer its homegrown jabs to poorer countries. But the largesse is not entirely altruistic, with Beijing hoping for a long-term diplomatic return. The strategy carries multiple possible benefits: deflecting anger and criticism

over China’s early handling of the pandemic, raising the profile of its biotech firms, and both strengthening and extending influence in Asia and beyond. “There is no doubt China is practising vaccine diplomacy in an effort to repair its tarnished image,” Huang Yanzhong, a senior fellow for global health at the Council on Foreign Relations

(CFR), told AFP. “It has also become a tool to increase China’s global influence and iron out... geopolitical issues.” Stung by criticism of its handling of the emergence of the coronavirus in Wuhan, China has made much of its own ability to get its own outbreak under control, with

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ByWillie Casas and Joel Zurbano WITH only a few days to the Christmas holidays, the Department of Health provided suggestions that could help prevent COVID-19 transmissions such as giving face masks and face shields and other creative ways as alternatives to traditional Christmas gifts. Next page

COVID-19 PH AT A GLANCE

(AS OF 4 PM DECEMBER 10)

445,540 TOTAL NUMBER OF CASES

1,151 27,781 NEW

ACTIVE

8,701

24

409,058

113

DEATHS

RECOVERIES

NEW

NEW

1.4m workers seek cash aid through Bayanihan 2—DOLE By Vito Barcelo and Willie Casas in a statement.

INDIGENOUS RIGHTS. An activist wearing a native Filipino costume stands out during a protest-rally in Mendiola during the commemoration of the International Human Rights Day. Protesters denounce alleged human rights abuses, the war on drugs and the antiterrorism law. Norman Cruz

MORE than 1.4 million workers have applied for assistance through the COVID Adjustment Measures Program (CAMP) under the Bayanihan to Heal as One Act (Bayanihan 2), the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) said Thursday. “As of Dec. 8, a total of 1,462,350 workers from 36,355 establishments have applied for CAMP, exceeding by more than 2,000 workers the number of target beneficiaries of the program,” Labor Secretary Silvestre Bello III said

‘Poll protests raise cloud of doubt on SC justice’ THE electoral protest against Marikina City Rep. Stella Luz Quimbo appears to be one of the “big” issues that could raise a cloud of doubt on Supreme Court Associate Justice Marvic Leonen’s credibility since the lawmaker is a member of Liberal Party. The significance of Quimbo’s case is parallel with the electoral protest filed by former Senator Ferdinand “Bongbong’ Marcos Jr. against

By Macon Ramos-Araneta and Maricel V. Cruz

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Story on B1

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Tollway mess spurs Senate panel probe

By Rey E. Requejo

UN food agency warns of ‘hunger pandemic’ worse than COVID-19

Bello added that more than half of the PHP4 billion of the program’s allocation has been given to qualified applicants. “Of the P4 billion CAMP allocation, over P2.3 billion or 54 percent has been disbursed to the beneficiaries,” he said in a virtual press conference on Wednesday. The DOLE added that applicants for CAMP have only until Friday to apply for the one-time cash assistance of P5,000. In Labor Advisory No. 33, Bello said the program had reached the number of target beneficiaries.

SMOKE IN THE WATER. At least a hundred houses went up in smoke during a fire that razed a residential area along South Ave. in Brgy. Olympia, Makati City on Thursday. Norman Cruz

THE Senate will summon Transportation Secretary Arthur Tugade to answer for the lamentable experience of motorists from its ill-studied order for expressway operators to implement a 100-percent cashless toll collection starting this month. Sen. Grace Poe, chair of the Sen-

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