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Poll: 49% of Pinoys see life improving in next 12 months
‘Put e-sabong on banned gambling list’
NEWS A2
NEWS A4 VOL. XXXVI • NO. 351 • 3 SECTIONS 12 PAGES • P20 • TUESDAY, JANUARY 31, 2023 • www.manilastandard.net • mst.daydesk@gmail.com
PBBM rolls out 5-year dev’t plan Signs EO for economic recovery to uplift lives of ordinary Pinoys By Vito Barcelo and Vince Lopez
P
RESIDENT Ferdinand Marcos Jr. has signed an executive order (EO) approving and adopting the Philippine Development Plan for the period 2023-2028, which provides a five-year roadmap for the country’s economic recovery and aims to make the Philippines an upper-middle-income country by 2025. The Plan lists several target outcomes single-digit level -- 9 percent -- by that the Marcos administration com- the time the administration’s term mits to achieve over the medium term: ends in 2028; - Bring down the poverty rate to a - Keep food and overall prices low
and stable. Food and overall inflation will be kept within 2 to 4 percent; - Create more and better-quality jobs. Although unemployment is nearing pre-pandemic levels in 2022 at 5.7 percent, there is much room to improve the quality, productivity, and stability of employment. By 2028, the target unemployment rate is within 4 to 5 percent, and the percentage of wage and salary workers in private establishments to total employed is within 53 to 55 percent; - Maintain high levels of economic
growth in the medium term, rising from 6 to 7 percent in 2023 to 6.5 to 8 percent from 2024 to 2028; and - Ensure fiscal discipline. The national government deficit to GDP ratio will be gradually brought down from 6.5 percent during the first half of 2022 to 3 percent in 2028. The outstanding government debt to GDP ratio will also be gradually reduced from 63.7 percent in September 2022 to 51.1 percent by the end-2028. Next page
Mr. Marcos says education system ‘failed’ the children By Vince Lopez and Macon Ramos-Araneta PRESIDENT Ferdinand Marcos Jr. on Monday said the education system has “failed” Filipino children as he vowed to do better to improve the education sector. “We have failed them. We have to admit that we have failed our children. And let us not keep failing them anymore. Otherwise, we will not allow them to become the great Filipinos that we know they can be,” the President said after receiving the 2023 Basic Education Report from Vice President and Education Secretary Sara Duterte-Carpio yesterday. “The Filipino is better than this. The children are better than this. And we cannot fail them. And that is the main motivation that we should keep in our hearts,” Mr. Marcos said. In her report, Duterte-Carpio revealed the multiple challenges hounding the education system as she launched the so-called “MATATAG” roadmap to address the identified problems. These problems included the lack of school infrastructure, the “cracks” in DepEd’s procurement practices, the decrease of enrollment in private Next page
GRIEVING FATHER. President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. embraces the father of Jullebee Ranara, the 35-year-old household worker whose burnt body was found in a desert in Kuwait a week ago, at her wake in their home in Las Pinas City. The President vowed to extend all possible assistance to the Ranara family. (See related stoy on A2) PCO Photo
WHO declares COVID still global crisis, pandemic at transition point GENEVA—Three years to the day after the World Health Organization (WHO) sounded the highest level of global alert over COVID-19, it said Monday the pandemic remains an international emergency. The United Nations health agency’s emergency committee on COVID-19
met last Friday for the 14th time since the start of the crisis. Following that meeting, WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus “concurs with the advice offered by the committee regarding the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic and determines
that the event continues to constitute a public health emergency of international concern (PHEIC),” the organization said in a statement. Meanwhile, all countries remain “dangerously unprepared” for the next pandemic, the Red Cross warned on
Fuel price hikes: Gas up P1.30/l, diesel by P1/l
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Vice President and Education Secretary Sara Duterte-Carpio
Enrile slams ICC, suggests probers’ arrest for interfering By Rey E. Requejo and Macon Ramos-Araneta
By Alena Mae S. Flores and Othel V. Campos DOMESTIC pump prices went up for the third consecutive week by as much as P1.35 per liter effective 6 a.m. Tuesday to reflect the movement of prices in the world oil market. The oil firms raised the price of kerosene by P1.35 per liter, gasoline by P1.30 per liter, and diesel by P1 per liter. Meanwhile, even as inflation remains high, the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) said the suggested retail price (SRP) for various commodities would remain at levels set by the August 2022 SRP Bulletin, as the agency has not yet finished assessing the petitions for price increases by companies.
Monday, saying future health crises could also collide with increasingly likely climate-related disasters. Despite three “brutal” years of the COVID-19 pandemic, strong preparedness systems are “severely lacking”, the
PRESIDENTIAL Chief Legal Counsel Juan Ponce Enrile on Monday recommended that investigators working for the International Criminal Court (ICC) be arrested if they come into the country without government permission to probe the Duterte administration’s
bloody war on drugs. The Philippines “will not allow any of our officials to be investigated or tried by the International Criminal Court,” Enrile told reporters Monday. “As the lawyer of the President, as far as I am concerned, I do not recognize the jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court of Justice. They have no Next page
Power snaps may hit rural areas By Alena Mae S. Flores
LAKAS MEETING. Speaker Ferdinand Martin G. Romualdez delivers his message during a luncheon with Lakas-CMD party officials and members at the Social Hall of the House of Representatives on Monday. Ver Noveno
STATE-RUN National Power Corp. warned on Monday about year-long daily power interruptions affecting 1.3 million households in remote islands and off-grid areas because of high fuel prices and funding deficit.
NPC, suffering from funding shortages, proposed to reduce the operations of 156 power plants under the Small Power Utilities Group (SPUG), which could affect 450,000 households. It said delayed payments to new power providers and qualified third parties Next page