ANC After The Fact

A geospatial and data analytics company in the United States has come out with yet another alarming report on the damage wrought in occupied reefs in the West Philippine Sea. 

Simularity, pointed to damaging “excess nutrients” in these features compared to unoccupied reefs.

The report came a month after the company had also sounded the alarm on chinese ships allegedly dumping wastes in the West Philippine Sea. 

Liz Derr, co-founder and CEO of Simularity  and Dr. Charissa Ferrera, Assistant Professor at U.P. Marine Science Institute joined Christian Esguerra to talk more about these latest findings.

It’s been nearly a week since Metro Manila went on lockdown once again this time to contain the delta variant of COVID-19. 

Locking down people, of course, means limiting their movement and shutting down businesses leaving only those involved in essential services. 

The national government has promised cash aid — a maximum of 4,000 for every family. But we know this won’t be enough to last them for two weeks. 

In this episode, Christian Esguerra talked to Navotas Mayor Toby Tiangco and San Juan Mayor Francis Zamora  about how local governments are coping with this latest Enhanced Community Quarantine.

President Duterte has been on the offensive on certain politicians — first it was Senator Manny Pacquiao, and more recently, Manila Mayor Isko Moreno.

One common denominator, of course, is this — both Pacquiao and Moreno are — or perhaps, “were” — allies of this administration perhaps, even considered as “enablers” of Duterte.

The other commonality — both of them are seen as serious threats to Duterte’s president candidate or candidates in the 2022 elections.

In the meantime, efforts are underway to unite the political opposition under a single presidential candidate. 

But who will that be?

How do you unite opposition forces and figures with separate plans and ambitions beyond 2022?

Who, by the way, is the opposition?

Words matter especially in a pandemic where one statement by a public official can trigger panic.

On the eve of the latest lockdown of the national capital region, hundreds turned up in the City of Manila causing chaos in vaccination sites.

Many of them were interviewed saying they feared that unvaccinated people won’t be allowed to leave their homes or worse, won’t receive aid during the lockdown.

In short, Duterte’s words — his threat — mattered to them.

In his defense, Palace Spokesman Harry Roque said Duterte’s words could not have triggered the chaos in Manila because they had been said a good week prior. 

Roque also described Duterte as the “best positive communicator in the country today.”

In this episode, we examine Duterte as a communicator, his so-called authenticity and populism, especially in this pandemic.

Less than two months before candidates officially declare their intention to run in the 2022 elections, opposition forces are looking for a common candidate to go up against President Duterte’s candidate or even Duterte himself who is expected to run for vice president.

Senator Panfilo Lacson recently came out with a formula — why don’t he and Vice President Robredo both file their certificates of candidacy in October?

Then whoever gets the better survey numbers — meaning a better chance of defeating the administration candidate — proceeds while the other one withdraws. 

Robredo later rejected the Lacson formula saying she didn’t want to lead her supporters on — if ever she decided to run, there’s no turning back.

How then do you unify a fragmented opposition whose disunity can only make it easier for duterte forces to remain in power beyond 2022?

President Duterte’s political party is set to nominate his long-time assistant and now Senator Christopher Go for president in 2022.

The PDP-Laban ticket will include Duterte himself as its vice presidential candidate.

In response, Go — who, by the way, continues to apparently function as a Duterte aide these days — said he would run for president only if Duterte would be his vice president. 

Why exactly is PDP-Laban fielding Go, a neophyte senator with questionable experience and competence especially for the highest elective post?

How much this is driven by the need to protect Duterte who’s expected to face criminal cases once he steps down?

A group of Filipino experts crunching COVID-19 numbers since last year is now under fire for allegedly coming out with “alarmist” projections based on “incomplete and erroneous data.”

In fact, a group of congressmen has filed a resolution seeking an investigation into the OCTA research group.

The resolution also cited criticism of OCTA coming from Dr. Edsel Salvaña,member of health department’s technical advisory group.

But Salvaña himself has been criticized online or consistently defending the government’s handling of the pandemic despite glaring missteps and inefficiencies.

In the case of OCTA, the group is now being targeted not for its questionable stats and projections but for telling the ugly truth about the country’s COVID-19 numbers?

Metro Manila returns to yet another hard lockdown to contain the spread of the more infectious Delta variant of COVID-19.

This means millions of workers will have to stay home and find ways to stay afloat for the next two weeks.

In this episode, we talk about the economic costs of prolonged lockdowns as part of the Philippine government’s strategy against COVID-19. 

What’s working — and more importantly, what isn’t — in this approach, which, so far, has failed to contain the pandemic and has left much to be desired. 

In a matter of months the 2022 national elections will be upon us.

But even before that happens, there’s the campaign period.

Before that, the filing of certificates of candidacy and before that - the ongoing voter registration.

All these as the pandemic continues to rage. in fact, the covid crisis has forced the suspension of the registration process in areas that will be put under hard lockdown beginning August 6th. 

Prompting some quarters to call for an extension and the Commission on Elections? They have yet to tackle this. But should they?

Vaccine arrivals - a shot in the arm for the country’s vaccination program which will be the main focus of the Philippines's capital when it goes back into the strictest lockdown in a matter of days.  

But here's the thing as local chief executives prepare for this, a group of people, doctors included are coming out with warnings their claim is this: not enough studies have been done on these vaccines, and therefore, they’re dangerous. 

How might this put the vaccination program in peril?

Guests:

Dr. Benigno Agbayani, President, Concerned Doctors and Citizens of the Philippines

Dr Tony Leachon, Health Reform Advocate