Amidst everything that’s happening, President Rodrigo Duterte certified two bills seeking to extend the validity of the 2020 national budget and the so-called “Bayanihan 2” legislation as urgent steps to ensure that the government has enough fiscal leeway to finance next year’s expensive pandemic response. Duterte gave presidential certification to House Bill 6656 in a letter to House Speaker Lord …

In light of the pandemic, it was issued this year that medical frontliners will receive a hazard pay to give back the sacrifices and risk they went through this year but the arrangements for this were not that simple. Looking back, One of the Senate leader called on the Duterte administration to address the question of unreleased hazard pay and …

The lawmakers sealed their agreement of the second to the last budget of the Duterte administration next year, plotting it on course for a timely passage that is crucial to ensure that new pandemic recovery initiatives are immediately supported. House and Senate budget leaders in a briefing that the P4.5-trillion proposed spending plan was accepted by their respective contingents, up …

Nobody celebrates it better than the Filipinos when it comes to Christmas. The Philippines is well-known for celebrating the world’s longest Christmas season. As a matter of fact, once the “ber” months hit the calendar, they will already feel its season and it officially ends on the Feast of Epiphany (Three Kings) on the first Sunday after New Year. While …

Unexpectedly at a mass meeting in Cebu that presidential spokesman Harry Roque attended, a police probe is ongoing, but penalties for quarantine violations are out of his hands. Police Gen. Debold Sinas, cleared during the Luzon-wide shutdown earlier this year by President Rodrigo Duterte over a birthday party, said regional police directors were ordered to probe the incident, along with …

The Duterte administration declared that it intends to get 60 to 70 million Filipinos vaccinated against coronavirus in three to five years, with some 35 million inoculation priorities already established. In a Laging Handa briefing, Secretary Carlito Galvez Jr., the vaccine czar of the country, shared that by mid-2021, mass vaccination could begin in the best case scenario. But he …

When the travel ban on medical staff is lifted in January, the Philippines is supposed to still have enough health professionals to battle COVID-19. This is the reason why Harry Roque said President Duterte had sought the assurance of the Department of Health (DOH) that before accepting the proposal to lift the ban on deployment, the country would have enough …

The United States government handed over to the Philippines precision-guided munitions worth P868 million ($18 million). The new donation fulfills the pledge made by US President Donald Trump during a conference call with President Rodrigo Duterte in April, Foreign Affairs Secretary Teodoro Locsin Jr. stated. The weapons, including 100 TOW-2A missiles, 12 ITAS and 24 MK-82s, were handed over by …

The students calling for an academic strike should not have any consequences, more than 700 graduates of the University of Ateneo de Manila said in a statement in support of the grassroots protest against the national government’s response to the coronavirus pandemic and the recent typhoon attacks. The school’s official student paper, The GUIDON, announced this new development. The declaration …

President Duterte has warned that if Vice President Leni Robredo decides to run for president in the 2022 elections, things would not be easy, as it would be her’ nightmare. The President aired his gripe against Robredo, who during the attack of Typhoons Rolly and Ulysses, which left scores dead in the middle of major floods in Luzon, he accused …