Philippines

Pete Buttigieg, who as a relative unknown entered the Democratic presidential race and established himself as the party’s future during an unprecedented rise to the top tier of a crowded field, ended his bid for the White House on Sunday. Buttigieg, 38, a former two-term mayor of South Bend, Indiana, a war veteran in Afghanistan and the first openly gay …

The Philippine Catholic Bishops ‘ Conference (CBCP) has urged authorities to suspend the implementation of the Kaliwa Dam project, which it said would threaten indigenous communities and the environment in the Sierra Madre mountain range. Advertisement CBCP President and Archbishop Romulo Valles of Davao said the Kaliwa Dam project would impact indigenous groups in Dumagat-Remontados. The project will submerge about …

Buhay party-list Representative Lito Atienza on Monday reported that Speaker Alan Peter Cayetano was moving to declare all vacancies vacant in the House of Representatives and call for a new vote on the speakership to void his term-sharing agreement with Representative Lord Allan Velasco of Marinduque. In Monday’s interview with reporters, Atienza said he had details. The party-list rep insisted …

Filipinos from the coronavirus (COVID-19)-hit Diamond Princess cruise ship in Japan landed at Clark International Airport Tuesday night, the DFA said. A total of 538 Filipinos were on board the Princess of Diamonds. Seven of that number were passengers while 531 were members of the crew. The ship was quarantined early in February after positive tests by a passenger for …

San Miguel power subsidiary South Premiere Power Corp. (SPPC) maintained that the Mandaluyong Regional Trial Court (RTC) had jurisdiction over a pending Ilijan power plant case. SPPC replied in a statement to remarks made by Leyte Representative Vicente Veloso challenging the authority of the RTC over the measurement of generation charges under the Ilijan power contract. Veloso previously challenged the …

Quezon City Mayor Joy Belmonte lifted the temporary cease and desist order issued in the Quezon Memorial Circle against the above-ground construction of the MRT-7. Advertisement Belmonte declared the lifting after the new structure proposal proposed by EEI and San Miguel Corporations had been accepted by the officials concerned. The overground construction was reduced from approximately 11,000 square meters to …

The Department of Health said the number of Filipinos repatriated from the COVID-19-hit M / V Diamond Princess who had symptoms of respiratory disease has reached seven. Vergeire said four of the seven repatriates had tested negative for COVID-19. Whereas, on the other three repatriates, the DOH awaits the tests completed. Vergeire said the test results performed by the Tropical …

The deadly coronavirus outbreak will cost world tourism at least $22 billion owing to a decline in Chinese tourist spending, said Thursday the World Travel and Tourism Council president. More than 2,760 people have been killed by the COVID-19 virus, mostly in China–where it first appeared in December–and more than 81,000 have been infected in over 45 countries. The loss …

As part of a business restructuring plan, the flag carrier Philippine Airlines (PAL) has laid off 300 employees to handle losses suffered by travel restrictions on coronavirus-stricken destinations. PAL announced on Friday that PAL has introduced a “voluntary separation program for long-serving workers and a retrenchment process” which was completed on 28 February. The mass lay-off is part of the …

According to a study compiled by AFP from official sources, the number of new coronavirus cases in the world grew to 82,560 including 2,813 deaths across 50 countries and territories by 1700 GMT on Thursday. Advertising 1 296 new contaminations were found in the 24 hours following the previous count at 1700GMT on Wednesday. China— excluding the territories of Hong …