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HD gets hero’s welcome By Peter Atencio, Maricel V. Cruz and Coleen Magahis
H
IDILYN Diaz, who delivered the country’s first Olympic gold medal, returned home Wednesday with the hope that other athletes who follow in her footsteps will succeed as well.
President Rodrigo Duterte, in an online conference call with the fourtime Olympian, thanked her for her
sacrifices and for the sheer grit she has shown in overcoming all the obstacles along her way.
“The nation is ecstatic about your achievement. Your achievement is the achievement of the Philippine nation. So we are extremely proud. We cannot express even in the words of an athlete how we should really be shouting hallelujah,” the President said. “But thank you for persevering. I hope that the years of toil, the years of
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VOL. XXXV • NO. 164 • 3 SECTIONS 12 PAGES • P18 • THURSDAY, JULY 29, 2021 • www.manilastandard.net • mst.daydesk@gmail.com
HD’s other feat: Most mentioned athlete on FB
Hidilyn Diaz waves to well wishers upon her arrival at the NAIA Terminal 2. (Inset) HD and Olympic skateboard finalist Margielyn Didal (right, back row) along with their coaches celebrate aboard a PAL flight from Narita, Tokyo.
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Petecio secures bronze, fights for gold
DOH rejects 2-week hard lockdown
By Riera Mallari
By Willie Casas and Macon Ramos-Araneta METRO Manila could see more than 5,000 new cases of COVID-19 a day by late August if the government doesn’t impose a hard, two-week lockdown swiftly, independent researchers tracking the pandemic said Wednesday.
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FOUR-TIME Olympian Hidilyn Diaz did not only win the country’s first-ever Olympic gold medal on Monday, she also won it big on social media. Diaz was the most-mentioned athlete on Facebook and the third most-mentioned on Instagram across the globe over the past 24 hours since her historic win. She overtook American gymnast Simone Biles and Brazilian skateboarder Rayssa Leal. Over this same period, Facebook said the Philippines was the country that talks most about the Olympics on the platform, besting the United States and India. The Philippine flag emoji also landed a p o - dium finish, ranking as the third most-used emoji on the app during the same period. Meanwhile, Filipinos from all walks of life have come forward to offer rewards for Diaz.
TOKYO –Nesthy Petecio eradicated another stumbling block on her road to gold in the Summer Olympic Games by pounding out a 5-0 victory over former tormentor, Colombia’s Yeni Marcela Arias Castaneda in the quarterfinals of the 54-57 kg boxing competitions Wednesday at the Kokugikan Arena here.
Already enjoying its best-ever showing in the Olympiad following Hidilyn Diaz’s weightlifting gold on Monday, the Philippines was assured of another medal here, a bronze, courtesy of Petecio’s vengeful win against the Colombian bronze medalist in the 2019 Pan American Games. It was also the country’s first boxing medal in the games in 25 years since the silver of Onyok Velasco in the 1996 Atlanta Olympics, and the
first multiple-medal campaign in the games in 89 years since the 1932 Los Angeles edition, with the bronze medals of high-jumper Simeon Toribio, boxer Jose Villanueva and swimmer Teofilo Ydefonso. “First medal, I did feel confident especially in this tournament po! Sobrang tuwa ko po, sobrang blessed po ako,” said the featherweight Petecio, who has already notched three wins here, needing two more to capture
gold. Petecio was cool and calculated with her pinpoint combinations in the first round, prompting Castaneda to be more aggressive in the second. But the Filipinas 2019 champion of the World Championships in Russia, kept her focused and picked her spots, frustrating the Colombian with nifty counters from start to finish. “Huwag daw akong makipag-dikiNext page
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Those who don’t want to get vaccinated, don’t leave your homes. I will tell the police to escort you back home because you might be spreading the virus left and right. I will assume full responsibility for this. We need to have a law to punish a person who is unvaccinated and roams around. – President Rodrigo Duterte
Filipino boxer Nesthy Petecio (in red) deals a jarring blow to her Colombian opponent, thus ensuring for herself at least a bronze medal although she needs two more victories to clinch gold for the Philippines, the second after Hidilyn Diaz. AFP
COVID-19 PH AT A GLANCE
(AS OF 4 PM JULY 28)
1,566,667 TOTAL NUMBER OF CASES
4,478 54,552 NEW
ACTIVE
27,401
84
1,484,714
6,149
DEATHS
RECOVERIES
NEW
NEW
Businessmen ask for time 82 cops in QC test positive for Covid to adjust as controls tighten By Rio N. Araja and Willie Casas
The Philippine Chamber of ComBy Othel V. Campos, Rio N. Araja and Julito G. Rada merce and Industry (PCCI), the FilipinoWITH the threat of the more transmissible COVID-19 Delta variant and a spike in the number of infections, business leaders said another lockdown would cause more economic pain— and hoped the measures would pay off.
Chinese Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Inc. (FFCCCII) and Go Negosyo agreed to a two-week lockdown as proposed by the OCTA Research Group, but asked for at least a week to make the necessary adjustments to their operations. Next page
SOME 82 policemen or more than half of the 161 cops from the Quezon City Police District Station 3 swabbed Friday last week have tested positive for COVID-19. Of the 82 who tested positive, 51 were deployed during the final State of the Nation Address of President Rodrigo Duterte last Monday.
“Some 118 from Police Station 3 participated in our SONA deployment, and 51 of them were tested positive,” QCPD chief Brig. Gen. Antonio Yarra said. Yarra said three cops from Stations 9 and 11 also tested positive for COVID-19, while no positive results were reported from Police Stations 10 and 7. All the cops who tested positive were asymptomatic and have been Next page