Manila Standard - 2021 January 15 - Friday

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Rody: Recovery within sight By Vito Barcelo, Willie Casas and Maricel V. Cruz

PRESIDENT Rodrigo Duterte expressed hope that the country’s recovery is within sight even as officials vouched for the safety of all COVID-19 vaccines that will be bought and administered. “There is light at the end of the tunnel. National recovery is within sight,”

Duterte said in a video message at the signing of the tripartite agreement involving local government units (LGUs) and private companies for the purchase of 17 million doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine. The AstraZeneca supply deal – the country’s second – involves about 300 private companies and 39 local government units in partnership with the

PH races to stop new strain Next page

VOL. XXXIV • NO. 311 • 2 SECTIONS 12 PAGES • P18 • FRIDAY, JANUARY 15, 2021 • www.manilastandard.net • mst.daydesk@gmail.com

Filipino worker catches UK variant in UAE; travel ban mulled

COVID-19 PH AT A GLANCE

(AS OF 4 PM JANUARY 14)

494,605 TOTAL NUMBER OF CASES

1,912 25,614 NEW

ACTIVE

9,739

60

459,252

746

DEATHS

RECOVERIES

VACCINE

ESTIMATED PRICE

EFFICACY

MODERNA SINOVAC PFIZER GAMALEYA COVAX Facility ASTRAZENECA NOVAVAX

P3,904 – P4,504 P3,629.50 P2,379 P1,220 P854 P610 P366

95.00% 50.40% 95.00% 92.00% N/A 70.00% N/A

NEW

By Vito Barcelo, Willie Casas, Rio N. Araja and Joel E. Zurbano

T

HE government scrambled to stop the spread of the more transmissible UK variant of the cornavirus after a Filipino worker arrived in the country from the United Arab Emirates (UAE) tested positive for it.

Presidential spokesman Harry Roque said the Department of Health (DOH) confirmed that the new and more contagious COVID-19 strain has finally entered the country. The UK variant was detected after samples from a Filipino who returned home from the UAE on Jan. 7 yielded Source: Senate data positive genome sequencing results.

Dacera case: DOT suspends Makati hotel

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P82b set aside for vax buys, jabs for 50m

NEW

THE City Garden Grand Hotel (CGGH) in Makati, the hotel where flight attendant Christine Dacera, 23, was found dead on January 1, will no longer operate after the Department of Tourism revoked its certificate of authority to operate due to what it called fraudulent solicitation of business. According to the DOT, the CGGH was found to “have misrepresented itself to the public as being allowed to accommodate guests for leisure or staycation purposes despite being a quarantine facility.” “The DOT… finds the CGGH in Makati City liable for the offense of gross and evident bad faith in dealing with clients/fraudulent solicitation of business or making any false, deceptive, or misleading claims or statements for the purpose of soliciting business from clients,” the DOT said in a statement. The Tourism Department said it considered evidence found in the case of Dacera, found unresponsive in a bathtub in the hotel on January 1 after celebrating New Year with her friends.

He said close contacts of the man who tested positive for the new coronavirus variant have been traced and isolated. Roque said it was likely that a travel ban would be extended to include the UAE, depending on the recommendation of the DOH and the Department of Foreign Affairs.

By Julito G. Rada THE government will spend P82.5 billion to buy COVID-19 vaccines and fund the rollout of a massive immunization program aimed at stopping the coronavirus’ onslaught, President Rodrigo Duterte reported late Wednesday evening in a weekly address to the nation. He said money for the vaccines would come from unprogrammed funds—foreign and domestic loans that he said were “already on deck.” Breaking down the government expenditure, he said P70 billion will be spent for logistics and other supplies provided for by the 2021 General Appropriations Act; Department of Health (DOH), P2.5 billion; and the Bayanihan 2 providing continuing government appropriation, P10 billion. “All in all, we have P82.5 billion for COVID. I think that should be sufficient,” he said in Filipino. The President also expressed his gratitude to private entities and individuals who made commitments to help the government in its mass vaccination against the coronavirus. Among those who expressed readiness to assist the government

FAST LANE. President Rodrigo Duterte

(left) and San Miguel Corp. president Ramon S. Ang lead the inauguration of the Metro Manila Skyway Stage 3 Project on January 14, 2020. The seven-lane expressway (inset) will be formally opened to the public today at 5 a.m. It is touted to reduce travel time from Makati to Quezon City from 2 hours to only 20 minutes.

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House blocs back changes to economic provisos By Maricel V. Cruz and Macon Ramos-Araneta

for Speaker Lord Allan Velasco’s call to review the economic provisions in the 1987 Constitution to help the economy LEADERS of major political parties recover from the devastating impact of and blocs in the House of Representa- the coronavirus pandemic. In the manifesto, the leaders vowed tives have signed a manifesto of support

WORLD ROUNDUP

China’s 1st death since May; Pope gets vaccinated

SWAB FOR FREE. Health worker from Manila administers serology test on a Manileno, one of several people who are lined up for COVID-19 test at the Quirino Grandstand. On Monday, the city will start doing RT-PCR swab test for free to pre-registered Manileños and non-Manileños. Norman Cruz

CHINA recorded its first COVID-19 death in eight months on Thursday, as experts huddled to discuss worrying new strains of the coronavirus that are spreading rapidly around the globe. The gathering in Geneva of the World Health Organization’s emergency committee comes as their colleagues landed in Wuhan for a long-delayed mission to find the origins of the virus. Next page

Duterte dissuades Sara from running for president By Vito Barcelo PRESIDENT Rodrigo Duterte on Thursday said he would not allow his daughter, Davao City Mayor Sara Duterte-Carpio, to run for president in the coming national elections, because he would not want her

to experience what he was going through as leader of the country. Duterte also rejected rumors that he was planning to extend his term as president, stressing he was tired of politics. The President made the remarks during the opening of the Metro Manila

Skyway stage 3 project in Quezon City, saying there were people convincing his daugther, Sara, to run for the country’s top post. “My daughter, they are egging her to run, but I told her not to run. I pity her Next page

that the House would “deliberate only on the economic provisions” as specified in Resolution of Both Houses 2 filed by Velasco and was now being taken up by the House Committee on Next page

Trump makes history: Impeached 2x DONALD Trump became the first US president in history to be impeached twice when the US House of Representatives voted Wednesday to charge him with inciting last week’s mob attack on Congress. “Today, in a bipartisan way, the House demonstrated that no one is WASHINGTON, DC.—Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi bangs her gavel after the House has voted to impeach U.S. President Donald Trump for the second time in s little over a year in the House Chamber of the U.S. Capitol January 13, 2021 in Washington, DC. The House voted 232-197 to impeach Trump on the charge of “incitement of insurrection” after a mob attacked the U.S. Capitol where Congress was working to certify the Electoral College victory of President-elect Joe Biden on January 6. AFP

above the law, not even the president of the United States,” Democratic Speaker Nancy Pelosi said after the vote. The Senate will not hold a trial before January 20, when Democrat Joe Biden assumes the presidency, meaning the real estate tycoon will escape the ignominy of Next page


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