We will not surrender our freedomsToday, Independence Day, we renew our pledge to serve the people, to continue speaking truth to power, and to guard and defend freedom of the press and of expression from all threats.Read More Covering the PandemicRead more Covering the CoViD-19 Pandemic Despite Duterte Freedom of Information EO: Access to information narrows during pandemic CHEERS to the Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism (PCIJ) for looking into how access to government-held information has become more difficult during the COVID-19 pandemic. Karol Ilagan’s “Quarantine Curbs Access to Information” found that both national and local government agencies have either delayed responding to or denied requests for... Print, TV reports miss the point: The truth about the anti-terror bill is not a matter of opinion THE PRESS was obviously caught off-guard by the speed with which House Bill (HB) 6875, or the Anti-Terrorism Bill, went through three readings. Approved on May 29 by the Committee on Public Order and Safety and the Committee on National Defense and Security, it went through third and final... Media catching on: Government still confused about “mass” testing GOVERNMENT SPOKESPERSONS have among their responsibilities that of projecting a good image of the administration and its officials, primarily the chief executive. But spokespersons who sacrifice clarity and truth to achieve this soon lose their credibility. Controversy has hounded the issue of widespread testing that the government began to... Making the uncounted count: ABS-CBN looks beyond official COVID death toll THE DEPARTMENT of Health updates the number of confirmed COVID-19 cases, as well as recoveries and deaths daily. Cases in the Philippines have breached the 15,000 mark and continue to increase. The rising number of infections naturally gets the most emphasis in news reports. Some groups have questioned the... PWDs in media: Overlooked and left out LIKE MANY poor Filipinos, persons with disabilities (PWD) are among the most affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. They, like everyone else, have suffered the brunt of the inefficiency and lack of resources of the government’s response to the health crisis. CMFR cheers Rappler and Philstar.com for their focus on... Criminalizing criticism: More hardships for suffering public THE INHUMANE treatment of people violating quarantine protocols has exposed the Philippine National Police (PNP) as an agency without heart. (See monitor: “Editorials assail abuses during lockdown”) The administration has shown another aspect of its heartlessness, wielding the law to silence criticism and with uniformed officials at the forefront... Mass testing as policy: Still no plan in sight AS THE government eases restrictions to start up the economy, cash-strapped Filipinos are eager to return to work. On May 16, modified quarantine conditions were set for some areas, and some 14 million people across the country braved the risk of COVID-19 by leaving their homes to earn a... Inquirer blasts DILG drive for charter change amid pandemic PUBLIC OPINION polls have again and again found that federalism and Charter change (Cha-cha) are not priority issues for Filipinos. The shift to federalism was among President Rodrigo Duterte’s promised changes when he took office in 2016, but the bills filed by his allies that tried to do that... Media report ECQ shift to modified quarantine as just another “carmageddon” AFTER TWO months of lockdown, the government decided to ease quarantine restrictions in some areas. Modified levels were announced for different jurisdictions from May 16 to May 31. Modified levels of the ECQ included the modified enhanced community quarantine (MECQ), general community quarantine (GCQ) and modified general community quarantine... Have we “flattened the curve?” IN APRIL, as the clamor for COVID-19 mass testing intensified, the government scrambled to scale up its testing capacity. On the 30th, during the regular press briefing of the DOH, Undersecretary and spokesperson Maria Rosario Vergeire admitted that the DOH had failed to meet its target of conducting 8,000... « Previous1…6566676869…202Next »
