More news about how the COVID-19 pandemic in the Philippines is being handled by the public and the government.
It's starting to look like 2020 all over again with the Cebu Provincial Board urging health authorities to tighten preventive measures at all points of entry to this province following a spike in Covid-19 cases in Quezon City this month.
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| https://cebudailynews.inquirer.net/750327/cebu-pb-urges-tighter-covid-19-screening-at-entry-points-amid-quezon-city-spike |
The Cebu Provincial Board is urging health authorities to tighten preventive measures at all points of entry to this province following a spike in Covid-19 cases in Quezon City this month.
The call was made through a resolution approved during the Provincial Board’s regular session on Monday, July 20, 2026.
The resolution, authored by Board Member Dason Larenz Lagon, requested the Department of Health in Central Visayas (DOH-7) and the Cebu Provincial Health Office to collaborate in preventing the possible entry and spread of Covid-19 in Cebu.
The measure cited the localized increase in COVID-19 cases in Quezon City in July 2026, although the infections reported there were mild and isolated.
Despite this, the Provincial Board said early mitigation measures should be prepared to prevent possible cases from emerging or spreading in Cebu.
“It is, therefore, very appropriate to prepare early mitigation measures in order to abate any possible cases of Covid-19 that may arise in the future,” the resolution stated.
The board further called for strengthened preventive measures at Cebu’s points of entry, where health authorities may coordinate efforts to help prevent a rise in Covid-19 cases in the province.
The resolution also recalled the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic in the country. The disease claimed numerous lives when it spread nationwide.
It cited the government’s duty to protect public welfare under Republic Act No. 7160, or the Local Government Code of 1991.
The resolution will be furnished to DOH-7 and the provincial health office for their information and immediate action.
But the DOH has said there is nothing to worry about so why is the Cebu Provincial Board urging such a drastic and unneeded measure.
The Aeta community in Subic said it consented to the temporary use of part of its ancestral domain as a garbage disposal site in 2020 after the local government explained that COVID-19 restrictions had disrupted waste transport to accredited landfills.
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| https://newsinfo.inquirer.net/2267157/subic-dump-temporary-fix-during-pandemic-aeta-leaders |
Aeta leaders in this town said the decision to allow a portion of their ancestral domain to be used as a temporary garbage disposal site was made with the tribe’s consent at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, when lockdowns disrupted the transport of waste to accredited sanitary landfills outside the province.
In an interview on Sunday, Aeta Ambala Chieftain Francis Santos said he was familiar with the discussions held in 2020, having served on the tribal council before assuming the post of chieftain in April this year.
Santos said the Subic municipal government sought the community’s approval after explaining that travel restrictions had prevented garbage from being transported to an accredited sanitary landfill outside Zambales.
He said municipal officials first consulted the non-Indigenous family occupying the 5-hectare (ha) property under a Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR)-issued Certificate of Improvement before meeting with Aeta elders and leaders because the site forms part of the tribe’s ancestral domain.
“They explained to us that the garbage would only be placed there temporarily because it was during the pandemic and the local government could no longer transport the waste,” Santos said.
He stressed that the decision was made collectively by the tribe and was not authorized solely by the chieftain.
Barangay Captain Jonel Serrano confirmed the account, saying the municipal government asked local officials early in the pandemic to identify a temporary disposal site after restrictions prevented waste from being hauled to sanitary landfills in Pampanga or Bataan.
Serrano said he directed municipal officials to the occupant of the 5-ha property and advised them to obtain the consent of the Aeta community because the land is part of an ancestral domain.
He said the temporary use of the site began in March 2020.
According to the Subic Municipal Environment and Natural Resources Office, the municipality previously transported its garbage to the Floridablanca Enviro Park Project in Barangay Pabanlag, Floridablanca, Pampanga, a sanitary landfill operated by Floridablanca Enviro Corporation.
Santos said the tribe agreed to the temporary arrangement because it understood the difficulties faced by the municipal government during the pandemic.
“We agreed because we didn’t want the garbage to pile up and rot in Subic. We understood the situation at the time because it was during the pandemic,” he said.
He added that the area had long been occupied by non-Indigenous families even before the Aeta Ambala community was issued a Certificate of Ancestral Domain Title on Jan. 12, 2016. Portions of the 1,302-ha ancestral domain in Barangay Naugsol remain occupied by non-Indigenous residents.
Under the Indigenous Peoples’ Rights Act, activities affecting ancestral domains generally require consultation with and the participation of the Indigenous community. A Certificate of Improvement recognizes improvements introduced on public land but does not establish ownership.
The Inquirer sought confirmation from the DENR on whether a Certificate of Improvement had been issued for the property but had yet to receive a response.
The municipal government has since stopped using the site and is hauling out the waste as part of a rehabilitation program ordered by the DENR after the Environmental Management Bureau (EMB) found the operation violated Republic Act No. 9003 or the Ecological Solid Waste Management Act.
The issue gained national attention after Indigenous leaders and environmental advocates questioned the use of part of the ancestral domain in Sitio Tibag as a garbage dump. They also questioned why the EMB reportedly discovered the operation in 2022 but ordered its closure only in 2025 and called for administrative and criminal accountability, compensation for affected Indigenous communities and an independent assessment of the environmental damage.
In previous interviews with the Inquirer, Aeta leaders opposing the dump said the operation had contaminated their water source and forced some families to stop farming portions of their ancestral land.
On Monday, environmental nongovernment group Mother Earth Foundation (MEF) said the open dump should never have existed, calling it a clear case of “environmental injustice” and a violation of indigenous rights.
In a statement, MEF, which has promoted ecological solid waste management systems for over 25 years, expressed support for the Aeta community’s calls for accountability.
“The controversial dump in the ancestral domain of the Aeta Community is not an isolated incident; it reflects a persistent pattern of environmental injustices,” said the MEF
Last week, Sen. Robinhood Padilla filed Senate Resolution No. 513 seeking an inquiry into the operation of the garbage dump, including possible accountability, rehabilitation measures and legislative reforms to strengthen the protection of Indigenous peoples and their ancestral lands.
The Philippines continues to struggle as post-pandemic economic growth slows down.
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| https://bworldonline.com/top-stories/2026/07/28/766223/philippines-to-be-4th-slowest-growing-asean-economy-this-year-amro/ |
THE PHILIPPINES could be Southeast Asia’s fourth slowest-growing economy this year despite limited spillovers from the Middle East conflict, as its heavy reliance on imported oil and weak investment climate continue to weigh on growth, the ASEAN+3 Macroeconomic Research Office (AMRO) said.
In its latest ASEAN+3 Regional Economic Outlook, AMRO kept its Philippine gross domestic product (GDP) growth projections unchanged at 4.1% this year and 5.5% in 2027.
Both forecasts are still within the National Government’s growth targets of 3.5%-4.5% for 2026 and 5%-6% for 2027.
“The Philippines is one of the countries in the region that has been harder hit by the oil shock so far,” AMRO Chief Economist Dong He said in a virtual news briefing on Monday. “That’s reflected in both the lower growth rates we forecast for the Philippines this year than last year, but also the significantly higher inflation than 2025.”
If realized, Philippine economic growth this year will even be slower than the post-pandemic low of 4.4% in 2025. Energy shocks from the Middle East war rippled through the country’s domestic economy rapidly, dragging its GDP growth to 2.8% in the first quarter.
For this year, AMRO’s growth forecast for the Philippines is the fourth weakest among the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), ahead only of Brunei (1.9%), Thailand (2.4%) and Myanmar (2.5%). The Philippines is expected to trail Vietnam (7.5%), Indonesia (5%), Malaysia (5%), Cambodia (4.9%), Singapore (4.8%), and Laos (4.6%).
Mr. He said he is “cautiously optimistic” on the Philippines as the expected boost from artificial intelligence (AI) provides the economy some relief.
“Overall, I think the Philippine economy is benefiting from the AI cycle, but it has some specifics in terms of its oil exposures to the Middle East. It’s probably a lack of strategic reserves in terms of oil supply that’s reflected in these numbers,” he said.
For 2027, AMRO expects the Philippines to be the second fastest-growing economy in ASEAN, behind Vietnam (7.3%), and ahead of Indonesia (5.1%), Cambodia (4.9%), Laos and Malaysia (4.7%), Singapore (3.1%), Myanmar and Thailand (2.5%), and Brunei (1.7%).
According to Mr. He, the country’s investment slump, particularly in infrastructure, will continue to affect domestic activity throughout the year. For the long term, he said the Philippine government should focus on resolving key issues to attract more investments.
“That is how to strengthen private investment so that the production capacity and the infrastructure will be strong enough to support higher medium-term growth in terms of dealing with, for example, extreme weather conditions to make the Philippine economy much more robust against these natural disasters. So, some of the governance issues relating to infrastructure investment will have to be resolved,” he added.
So, this year the Philippines is the 4th weakest in the ASEAN but next year it will experience a boom and become the second fastest. If true that will be miraculous.
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