Fact check: Reported increase in drug war deaths amid pandemic is backed by gov t data
"The whole country knows that the PNP has been very busy in COVID response, implementing quarantine regulations and minimum health standards since the beginning of the pandemic," the department said in its statement, which claims that the 46.7% decrease in index crime volume rebutts the claim that drug war deaths rose. .....»»
Pertussis or whooping cough: 40 child deaths so far this year – DOH
MANILA, Philippines — Assistant Health Secretary Albert Domingo reported on Wednesday that as of March 16 this year, some 40 children had died of whooping cough — a respiratory infection also called pertussis. An increase in new pertussis cases nationwide had been observed nationwide, with 28 cases reported from March 10 to 16. READ: What.....»»
Fact check: Reported increase in drug war deaths amid pandemic is backed by gov t data
"The whole country knows that the PNP has been very busy in COVID response, implementing quarantine regulations and minimum health standards since the beginning of the pandemic," the department said in its statement, which claims that the 46.7% decrease in index crime volume rebutts the claim that drug war deaths rose. .....»»
Baltimore bridge accident: Freighter pilot called for tugboat help before plowing into bridge
BALTIMORE — The pilot of the cargo freighter had radioed for tugboat help and reported a power loss minutes before the Baltimore bridge accident, federal safety officials said on Wednesday, citing audio from the ship’s “black box” data recorder. The head of the National Transportation Safety Board also said that Francis Scott Key Bridge, a.....»»
CHR probes Davao drug war deaths
The Commission on Human Rights yesterday expressed grave concern over Davao City Mayor Sebastian Duterte’s recent declaration of a war on drugs in the city......»»
Drug killings 95 percent lower than in previous admin
The number of deaths recorded under the Marcos administration’s war on drugs has decreased by over 95 percent, in contrast to the bloody anti-drug campaign of his predecessor, Rodrigo Duterte......»»
FACT CHECK: No Marcos order expelling China from West PH Sea
Marcos says the government will defend the Philippines’ territory amid ‘worrisome’ Chinese presence in the West Philippine Sea but does not make reference to any expulsion of China.....»»
Marcos Jr. at PNP command conference: Not a loyalty check
It was not a loyalty check but an admonition to strengthen focus on addressing criminality, the country’s national police chief said yesterday of his first command conference with President Marcos at Camp Crame, amid rumors of destabilization attempts......»»
‘Review sex education amid teen pregnancies’
With one out of 10 teenagers aged 15 to 19 getting pregnant, the Department of Education should check comprehensive sexuality education programs to prevent female learners from dropping out of school due to pregnancy, Sen. Sherwin Gatchalian said......»»
FACT CHECK: No Marcos declaration of revolutionary government
There has been no announcement from Malacañang about establishing a revolutionary government. The false claim circulated amid recent moves in Congress to amend the Constitution......»»
FACT CHECK: Sara Duterte is still VP, DepEd secretary
Sara Duterte remains a member of the Marcos Cabinet. In a statement on January 29, she said she is committed to serving the public despite working amid 'a pandemonium.'.....»»
FACT CHECK: Baggage handlers filmed hurling luggage are not Korean
A viral TikTok video shows an old clip of baggage handlers at a Melbourne airport. It was posted amid recent controversies involving Thai tourists frequently being denied entry into South Korea......»»
FACT CHECK: No US decision to deploy 180 nuclear warheads to deter North Korea
Research institutions, not the US government, have made the recommendation to increase South Korean security amid North Korea’s nuclear threat.....»»
Nearly 29,000 people flee southern Lebanon
Nearly 29,000 people have been displaced in Lebanon amid deadly exchanges between Iran-backed Hezbollah fighters and the Israeli army, a United Nations agency said Friday. A total of 28,965 people have been displaced, mainly in the country’s south, the International Organization for Migration said in an update, adding that the figure had risen by 37 percent since 23 October. Some have found refuge with family members elsewhere in the country, while those who can afford it have been able to rent apartments on a short-term basis. But with Lebanon in the grips of an economic crisis that has plunged most of the population into poverty, many are living in makeshift shelters in the south’s larger towns. Since Palestinian militant group Hamas carried out an unprecedented attack on Israel from the Gaza Strip on 7 October, Lebanon’s southern border has seen tit-for-tat exchanges between Israel and the Iran-backed Hezbollah, a Hamas ally. At least 58 people have been killed in the cross-border exchanges of fire, most of them Hezbollah fighters but also including at least four civilians, one of them Reuters journalist Issam Abdallah. Soldiers and volunteers on Thursday were battling a blaze on Lebanon’s southern border caused by Israeli bombing overnight, local officials said. Mayor of the border village of Alma al-Shaab, Jean Ghafari, said fire broke out after Israeli bombing late Wednesday. “The blaze reached the edges of the village after midnight” and is still burning, he told Agence France-Presse, adding that it “has come close to houses.” The municipality said some 70 percent of the village’s population had fled due to Israeli attacks. The post Nearly 29,000 people flee southern Lebanon appeared first on Daily Tribune......»»
Biden warned Iran leader against attacks — White House
President Joe Biden sent a message to Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei warning against strikes on US troops amid the Israel-Hamas conflict, the White House said on Thursday. "There was a direct message relayed. That's as far as I'm going to go," US National Security Council spokesman John Kirby told reporters, declining to say how it was delivered. Later Thursday, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said US forces conducted precision strikes on two facilities in eastern Syria used by Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. The Pentagon says US and allied forces in Iraq and Syria have been attacked at least 16 times this month as tensions rise in the Middle East. It blamed "Iranian-backed militia groups." Biden told a press conference on Wednesday that he had warned Khamenei of a response if the attacks continue. "My warning to the Ayatollah was that if they continue to move against those troops, we will respond, and he should be prepared. It has nothing to do with Israel," he said alongside visiting Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese. Iran meanwhile warned Washington at the United Nations General Assembly over Israel's campaign of air strikes and artillery against Gaza following the 7 October Hamas attacks. "I say frankly to the American statesmen and military forces who are now managing the genocide in Palestine, that we do not welcome the expansion and scope of the war in the region," Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian said. "But I warn if the genocide in Gaza continues, they will not be spared from this fire." The United States has moved two aircraft carrier groups near Israel since the Hamas attacks in what it says is a bid to deter Iran and its allies from broadening the conflict. On Sunday, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin also ordered the activation of air defense systems in the region and notified additional forces that they may be deployed soon. There are roughly 2,500 American troops in Iraq and some 900 in Syria as part of efforts to prevent a resurgence of the Islamic State group, which once held significant territory in both countries but was pushed back by local ground forces backed by international air strikes in a bloody multi-year conflict. The post Biden warned Iran leader against attacks — White House appeared first on Daily Tribune......»»
Beware of terror’s seduction
Major league media spanning the world have fallen prey to the sweet seduction of the ratings game to forget about disseminating the truth, which is what journalism is all about. Terrorist forces have proven themselves adept in the art of deception that it lured the eminent The New York Times, or NYT, with its lies. Among the most prominent American newspapers, NYT, to its credit, issued an unprecedented “editorial note” admitting that a story it ran on the bombing of a Gaza hospital “left readers with an ‘incorrect impression,’” saying that its staff should have been more careful in the initial presentation of information and in explaining what could be verified. NYT had prominently and repeatedly featured Hamas’s claim that an Israeli airstrike caused last week’s blast at Gaza City’s al-Ahli Baptist Hospital. The note it issued on Monday acknowledged that its coverage should have been more journalistically rigorous. The Hamas-run health ministry in Gaza immediately blamed the 17 October explosion on an Israeli airstrike amid the war that erupted when the Palestinian terror group killed over 1,400 people in Israel in its assault on 7 October. Hamas provided no evidence to back up its false claim or for its claim that hundreds had been killed, but international media, including the NYT, swallowed the claims hook, line, and sinker. Shortly after, Israel produced evidence showing the explosion was caused by a failed rocket launch from Gaza by the Palestinian Islamic Jihad terror group, an assessment endorsed by the United States, which has said it has data that supports this. NYT admitted that its initial reports “relied too heavily on claims by Hamas and did not make clear that those claims could not immediately be verified. The report left readers with an incorrect impression about what was known and how credible the account was.” In Britain, the BBC and other media outlets were also criticized by government lawmakers for rushing to report the Hamas version of events. Prime Minister Rishi Sunak told the House of Commons last week, “We don’t treat what comes out of the Kremlin as the gospel truth; we should not do the same with Hamas.” In the war coverage, it must be clear there is no moral equivalence between Israel, a legitimate democracy, and Hamas, a terrorist organization that employs lies as a weapon. Media reports often frame both sides as being equivalent and engaged in a tit-for-tat. Hamas is the de facto ruler of the Gaza Strip, but major democracies consider it a terror organization. Israel, as a free and democratic sovereign state, does everything to minimize civilian casualties, while Hamas is an Iran-backed terrorist group that openly seeks the destruction of Israel and actively hunts Israeli civilians to murder or abduct. It deliberately fires projectiles into civilian areas to kill as many Israelis as possible. Israel’s military specifically targets Hamas infrastructure, such as rocket launchers and production facilities, terrorist headquarters, terror tunnels, weapons warehouses, and senior terror leaders. Israel employs a tactic known as “roof knocking,” which warns civilians to evacuate a building through text messages and phone calls before targeting it for destruction. In contrast, the American Jewish Committee said Hamas deliberately puts Palestinian civilians in harm’s way. Hamas fires rockets and stores weapons in civilian areas, including around homes, schools, offices, mosques and hospitals. Hamas staged a large-scale incursion into southern Israel on 7 October during the Jewish holiday of Simchat Torah, where over 600 Israelis were murdered. Often, the conflict with Hamas and other terrorist groups, such as the Palestinian Islamic Jihad, is framed as a dispute between Israelis and Palestinians. Any coverage of Hamas and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad must mention that both terror groups are armed, trained, and financially supported by Iran. While its origins are with the Muslim Brotherhood, Hamas has been funded, armed, and trained by the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps since the early 1990s. Equating Israel with Hamas would provide legitimacy to the use of terror tactics, which most nations have vowed never to consider as a subject of negotiation. The post Beware of terror’s seduction appeared first on Daily Tribune......»»
59 OFWs seek Lebanon exit
At least 59 Filipinos in Lebanon have expressed a desire to be repatriated amid the escalating tension between Israel and Iran-backed Hezbollah, the Philippine Embassy in Lebanon said Monday. Hezbollah is another Islamist militant group that controls the southern part of Lebanon. It has launched rockets into the northern part of Israel, which has fired back. “On Sunday morning, when we held our meeting with Filipino community leaders, we received 59 applications,” Philippine Ambassador to Lebanon Raymond Balatbat said in a television interview. This developed as the Philippine government, through the Department of Foreign Affairs, placed Lebanon under Alert Level 3, or voluntary repatriation. According to the DFA, there are an estimated 17,500 Filipinos in Lebanon, 67 of them residing on its southern border. Balatbat said only three of the 67 Filipinos on the southern border have asked to be repatriated. Since the surprise attack by the Palestinian Sunni-Islamic extremist group Hamas on Israel on 7 October, which left 1,400 Israelis dead, scores of foreigners have also been killed, including four Filipinos. Meanwhile, a total of 24 overseas Filipino workers, comprising the third batch of repatriates from Israel, arrived Monday afternoon at Ninoy Aquino International Airport Terminal 3. The repatriates — 21 women and three men — came from Israel via Abu Dhabi on board Etihad Airways flight EY424. Migrant Workers Officer-in-Charge Hans Leo Cacdac assured all the repatriates of support from the government to ease their displacement and facilitate their reintegration. Two Filipinos shared on Monday their traumatizing experience during the attack of Hamas in Israel. Tersita Malapo, 35, of Baao, Camarines Sur, a caregiver for eight years, said she and other Filipinos were about to go to church when they heard a siren. “On Saturday morning, we were about to go to church in Jerusalem because we go to church every day off. Suddenly, we heard a siren. After a while, there was news that rockets were being launched from Palestine. We were so shocked,” Malapo said. She said that because of the bombings a loud noise like the banging of a door made her nervous. “That feeling that you always hear something, your feeling of nervousness is increasing. When a door slams, you think something has exploded. In Israel, there is an explosion anytime of the day. It explodes even without a siren. When there’s a bombing, our house and bomb shelter vibrates,” she said. Gerald Caniban, 35, of Iloilo City, a caregiver for five years, said he was asleep when he heard the sirens. “It was an overwhelming experience. I was in Tel Aviv that morning. I was sleeping with my girlfriend when we heard the alert on my phone. It was Saturday, our day-off. After a few minutes, we heard sirens all over Tel Aviv,” Caniban said. He said he did not have peace of mind and described the situation as a terrible nightmare. The post 59 OFWs seek Lebanon exit appeared first on Daily Tribune......»»
Pentagon amps up posture in Mideast in response to ‘escalations’
The United States warned against any "escalation" in the Middle East in the wake of Israel's war with Hamas, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said Sunday, hours after the Pentagon moved to step up military readiness in the region. The United States has seen a "prospect of a significant escalation of attacks on our troops" in the region, Austin said Sunday, adding that the US military was preparing for "the ability to respond." "If any group or any country is looking to widen this conflict and take advantage of this very unfortunate situation that we see, our advice is: don't," he told ABC News. "We maintain the right to defend ourselves and we won't hesitate to take the appropriate action," he added. His comments came hours after the Pentagon said it was upping readiness in the region in response to "recent escalations by Iran and its proxy forces." Austin ordered the activation of air defense systems and notified additional forces that they may be deployed soon. Austin did not say how many US troops would be added to those already in the region. The Pentagon's moves came after what Austin had earlier described in a statement as "detailed discussions" with President Joe Biden. "These steps will bolster regional deterrence efforts, increase force protection for US forces in the region, and assist in the defense of Israel," Austin said. The steps continued the Biden administration's response since Hamas militants in the Gaza Strip stormed Israel on October 7, taking more than 200 hostages and killing at least 1,400 people, according to Israeli officials. tensions rising Israel has since vowed to destroy Hamas, and says around 1,500 of the group's fighters were killed in clashes before its army regained control of the area initially under attack. Austin said he had activated deployment of a Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) battery and additional Patriot battalions "throughout the region." "Finally, I have placed an additional number of forces on prepare-to-deploy orders as part of prudent contingency planning, to increase their readiness and ability to quickly respond as required," Austin said. Tensions are rising along Israel's northern border with Lebanon after the Israeli army traded fire with the Iran-backed militant group Hezbollah amid fears of a new front opening as Israel battles Hamas. In south Lebanon on Saturday, Hezbollah said four of its fighters were killed. Palestinian militant group Islamic Jihad said one of its fighters was also killed. Armed factions close to Iran have threatened to attack US interests in Iraq over Washington's support for Israel. Multiple Iraqi bases used by US-led coalition troops have been targeted in several attacks in recent days. Israel's military said Saturday it would intensify strikes on Hamas-controlled Gaza ahead of a planned ground invasion. The military has pounded Gaza with relentless strikes in response to Hamas's 7 October attack. The bombing campaign has killed more than 4,650 Palestinians, mainly civilians, according to the Hamas-run health ministry, and reduced swaths of the densely populated territory to ruins. A first trickle of aid entered the Palestinian enclave from Egypt on Saturday, but the 20 trucks permitted to cross have been described as a "drop in the ocean" given the needs of 2.4 million residents. The post Pentagon amps up posture in Mideast in response to ‘escalations’ appeared first on Daily Tribune......»»
Casualties on Israel-Lebanon border as army trades fire with Hezbollah
Casualties were reported along the Israel-Lebanon border Saturday as the army traded fire with Iran-backed militant group Hezbollah amid fears of a new front opening as Israel battles Hamas. Israel already ordered the evacuation of Kiryat Shmona, a border town which is home to some 25,000 people, as the border area has come fire from Hezbollah and allied Palestinian factions. In Lebanon, Hezbollah said one of its fighters had been killed while in Israel, two Thai farm workers were wounded, emergency services said. A senior Hezbollah official warned that the movement stood ready to step up its involvement as Israel masses troops on the Gaza border, vowing to destroy Palestinian militant group Hamas in response to its shock cross-border attacks on October 7. "Let's be clear, as events unfold, if something comes up that calls for greater intervention by us, we will do so," said Hezbollah number two Naim Qassem. In northern Israel, a strike in the Margaliot area of the border wounded two Thai farm workers, Israel's Magen David Adom emergency medical service said. One was wounded in the chest, the other sustained a limb injury, the service said. There are around 30,000 Thai labourers in Israel, many working in the agricultural sector. Since October 7, exchanges of fire across the border have killed at least four people in Israel -- three soldiers and one civilian. In southern Lebanon, at least 23 people have been killed. Most have been combatants, but at least four civilians, including a Reuters journalist, have also been killed. Saturday's exchanges came as Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant visited the northern border, where he called on troops to remain "vigilant". "Hezbollah has decided to participate in the fighting, and is paying a price for it. We must be vigilant and prepare for every possible (scenario). Great challenges await us," Gallant said. The Shiite Muslim Hezbollah movement, Lebanon's only armed faction that did not disarm after the 1975-1990 civil war, fought a devastating war with Israel in 2006. That war left more than 1,200 dead in Lebanon, mostly civilians, and 160 dead in Israel, mostly soldiers, in a conflict that left the border bristling with guns. The post Casualties on Israel-Lebanon border as army trades fire with Hezbollah appeared first on Daily Tribune......»»
FACT CHECK: China Coast Guard did not fire on PH Navy ship near Scarborough Shoal
There are no reports confirming the supposed incident. The misleading video was uploaded amid China’s recent claims of driving away a Philippine ship from Scarborough Shoal......»»
Saudi Arabia puts Israel deal on ice amid war, engages with Iran, sources say
Saudi Arabia puts US-backed plans to normalize ties with Israel on hold as conflict with Hamas escalates.....»»