Sunday, May 2, 2021
COVID-19 sa PH, pinakamalala nitong Abril: pagsusuri
Pinakamalala ang situwasyon ng COVID-19 sa bansa nitong nagdaang buwan ng Abril, base sa datos ng Department of Health (DOH) na sinuri ng ABS-CBN Data Analytics.
Sa pagsusuri ng ABS-CBN Data Analytics, nasa 290,439 ang naitalang bagong kaso ng COVID-19 noong Abril, higit pa sa 265,738 pinagsama-samang kasong naitala mula Oktubre 2020 hanggang Pebrero 2021.
"'Yong phase na nakita talaga natin noong April, parang sa loob ng sampung araw, 100,000 ang nadadagdag eh," sabi ni Edson Guido, head ng ABS-CBN Data Analytics.
"Halos 4,000 din ang deaths na nai-report ng DOH noong April so hindi lang siya buwan na may pinakamaraming kasong nai-report kundi buwan din siya na may pinakamaraming namatay," dagdag niya.
Lumabas din sa pagsusuri na sa unang 4 na buan ng taon, pumalo agad sa 563,746 ang mga kaso ng COVID-19 sa Pilipinas, mas mataas sa 473,681 kaso na naitala sa buong 2020.
Hindi pa masabi ni Guido kung ano ang mangyayari ngayong Mayo, kung saan higit 8,000 ang daily average cases.
Nagpa-plateau o pumapantay lang aniya ang bilang at hindi tuluyang bumababa.
"Napaka-crucial nitong coming days. Dito natin malalaman kung talaga bang patuloy 'yong pagbaba na makikita natin, na aabot tayo ng mas mababang lebel or nandoon pa rin 'yong possibility talaga na puwedeng bumaliktad eh, puwedeng umangat dahil hindi nga natin makita ’yung tuloy-tuloy na pagbaba eh," ani Guido.
Gayunman, may pag-asa pa rin umanong nakikita ngayong Mayo dahil bumababa ang mga aktibong kaso at dumarami ang mga gumagaling sa sakit.
Ngayong Linggo, pumalo sa 1,054,983 ang kabuuang bilang ng COVID-19 cases sa Pilipinas matapos makapagtala ang DOH ng dagdag na 8,346 kaso.
Sa bilang na iyon, 71,472 ang active o may sakit pa rin.
Nakapagtala rin ang DOH ng 9,072 bagong gumaling sa sakit para sa 966,080 total recoviers habang 77 naman ang naitalang namatay para sa 17,431 death toll.
Higit sa pagbabantay sa mga numero, nangangalampag ang mga health care worker sa pamahalaan para sa mas kongkreto at epektibong tugon sa pag-responde sa mga nagkakasakit.
"Bagamat binibigyan namin ng premium 'yong paglahok ng mamamayan doon sa usapin ng pagsugpo sa pagkalat
ng COVID-19, hindi naman puwede natin isisisi na lang lagi sa kanila kasi siyempre 'yong rekurso, 'yong main support system pa rin ay manggagaling sa pamahalaan," ani Dr. Julie Caguiat, convenor ng Coalition for People's Right to Health.
-- Ulat ni Michael Delizo, ABS-CBN News
https://news.abs-cbn.com/news/05/02/21/covid-19-sa-ph-pinakamalala-nitong-abril-pagsusuri
Palace tells critics: Let Duterte pursue 'careful, calibrated' foreign policy
Malacañang on Sunday told critics of President Rodrigo Duterte to let him pursue his "careful, calibrated, and calculated foreign policy to its ultimate success" amid China's aggressions in the West Philippine Sea.
Retired Supreme Court Associate Justice Antonio Carpio and former Foreign Secretary Albert del Rosario have urged Duterte to take a bolder move against Beijing as hundreds of Chinese ships swarmed the West Philippine Sea since March.
Carpio and del Rosario remarks are "not helping our country," Duterte's spokesman Harry Roque said.
The former officials should "stop misleading and endangering our people with illegal, impractical, and irresponsible statements," he added.
"They should leave international relations to the one who has the foresight, information, and constitutional mandate to make sound foreign policy decisions," Roque said.
"They should let President Rodrigo Roa Duterte pursue his careful, calibrated, and calculated foreign policy."
Duterte has "never renounced our claims and entitlements" in the West Philippine Sea, said Roque.
"However, he knows that, as a responsible member of the world community, the Philippines must pursue its claims by legal and diplomatic means. We must lay the basis for negotiation, by building a relationship of mutual trust and confidence, and without engaging in name-calling and brinkmanship."
Del Rosario said they expected Duterte to enforce the Arbitral Award on the South China Sea, which invalidated Beijing's sweeping claims over almost the entire waters, after the country won it in July 2016.
Duterte temporarily set aside the ruling upon assuming power in 2016 as he forged friendlier relations with China to get economic aid and investments.
"Today, less than 5 percent of those (pledged) loans and investments (worth up to $24 billion) have materialized as President Duterte is already leaving office next year," Carpio had said.
"Filipinos deserve, and should demand, a President who loves Filipinos first and foremost, and who will uncompromisingly defend Philippine sovereignty and sovereign rights in the West Philippine Sea," he said.
Roque said the two former officials are demanding that Duterte "adopt hardline all or nothing policies."
"However, history shows that countries who demand all or nothing policies often get nothing at all, or even end up provoking war. This is exactly what the President is avoiding. Because all or nothing policies are not only inconsistent with international law and international reality—they are dangerous and they will not work," said Roque.
A fishermen's group said Sunday it has filed 3 petitions urging the United Nations to act on Chinese incursions in the West Philippine Sea.
The petitions filed Friday called on the UN to declare the China Coast Guard Law null and void, seek demilitarization of the South China Sea, and investigate the effect of Chinese incursion to Filipino fishers' livelihood domestic food security, said Pambansang Lakas ng Kilusang Mamamalakaya ng Pilipinas (PAMALAKAYA).
In June 2015, more than 30 Filipino fishermen also filed a petition with the United Nations over China's alleged "massive and gross human rights violations" by not allowing them to fish at disputed Scarborough Shoal in the West Philippine Sea.
Roque, who was then with the Center for International Law, and Atty. Gilbert Andres assisted the group of 38 fishermen from Subic and Masinloc towns in Zambales in the electronic transmission of their complaint to the U.N. Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, and to the U.N. Special Rapporteurs on the Right to Food, and on the Negative Impact of the Unilateral Coercive Measures on the Enjoyment of Human Rights.
China refuses to recognize the 2016 arbitral award and instead ramped up its militarization and island-building activities in the South China Sea.