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IN MET R MANILAO
VOL. XXXVII • NO. 43 • 2 SECTIONS 8 PAGES MARCH 26, 2023
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NEW INTERNATIONAL SHRINE. Priests carry banners
outside the Antipolo Cathedral in Antipolo City, Rizal as it formally became an international shrine on Saturday in accordance with a decree issued by the Vatican. Now also known as the International Shrine of Our Lady of Peace and Good Voyage, the church also houses the icon of Our Lady of Antipolo (inset). In a congratulatory message, President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. said: “We are one with our fellow Catholics in celebrating the declaration of the Vatican making Antipolo Cathedral the first international shrine in the country and the third in the whole of Asia. May this honor deepen our faith.” Antipolo Cathedral FB Page
Guns, ammo at Teves biz Solon’s brod facing illegal firearms raps, but willing to cooperate with PNP
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ORMER Negros Oriental Governor Pryde Henry Teves on Saturday said he is willing to cooperate with authorities after police recovered firearms and ammunition following a raid on a sugar mill owned by a company he heads.
The Philippine National Police-Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (PNPCIDG) seized P18 million in cash, multiple
firearms, and nearly 10,000 rounds of live ammunition from the HDJ Bayawan Agri-Venture Corp. Tolong compound in
Bayawan City, Negros Oriental on Friday. “Yes, I am the President of the Corp. [HDJ Bayawan Agri-Venture]. The search is not yet done. Let’s wait for it to be concluded so I can also check with our records on who owns what and how it came to be,” he told CNN Philippines in a text message on Friday while the raid was in progress. “I will definitely cooperate with the authorities to shed light on the matter,”
he added. “I reached out to the DOJ (Department of Justice), they need me to be invited to answer some questions so they can put it together. I am very willing also, I have no problem with it.” Pryde Teves is the brother of Negros Oriental 3rd district Rep. Arnolfo Teves Jr., the alleged mastermind behind the killing of Governor Roel Degamo on Mar. 4. CIDG legal officer Col. Thomas Valmonte on Saturday said authorities
also discovered 207 pieces of fired bullets of different calibers during the raid on the sugar mill in Sta. Catalina town, Negros Oriental. Pryde Teves will also be held criminally liable over the supposed illegal weapons, according to Valmonte. The business compound was raided by virtue of a search warrant due to an alleged violation of the Comprehensive Firearms and Ammunitions Regulation Act. Charles Dantes
PSA: Fishers, farmers, rural folk still poorest
BACK TO HER ROOTS. ‘High School Musical’ star Vanessa Hudgens, seen in a resplendent gown from the recent Met Gala in New York in this file photo, was expected to arrive in the Philippines on Saturday for the first time to shoot a travel documentary which will dig deeper into her Filipino roots. The film will be directed by presidential adviser Paul Soriano.
FISHERFOLK, farmers, children, and persons living in rural areas remained the poorest sectors in terms of poverty incidence in 2021, the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) reported. Based on the data released by the PSA on Friday, fisherfolk had the highest poverty incidence in 2021 at 30.6 percent, followed by farmers at 30%, children at 26.4%, and individuals residing in rural areas at 25.7%. These sectors also recorded the highest poverty incidences in 2015 and 2018, and “had the highest proportion of individuals belonging to families with income below the official poverty thresholds compared to the other basic sectors,” the agency said. This developed as the economy remains the main concern in both the macro and micro issues in the Pahayag Quarter 1 (PQ123) survey conducted by PUBLiCUS Asia, with the results released last 23 March. In a statement, the polling firm said
there was no change in the top issues deemed most important for President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. to focus on – the economy, inflation, corruption, poverty, and jobs. Education is in the top 5 of issues among respondents aged 18 to 24, government workers, and vocational graduates, PUBLiCUS added. Interestingly, when compared to the survey in the fourth quarter of 2022, “one can see that concern for corruption has increased marginally, from 11% (PQ4-22) to 13% (PQ1-23),” it added. The Pahayag First Quarter is an independent and non-commissioned survey comprised of 1,500 respondents randomly drawn from the market research panel of over 200,000 Filipinos maintained by the Singapore office of PureSpectrum, a USbased panel marketplace with multinational presence.
The PSA data also showed significant increases in poverty incidence in most of the basic sectors, with fisherfolk growing the largest at 4.4% from 2018 to 2021. Children followed at 2.5%, persons aged 15 and above with disability with 2.5%, and individuals residing in urban areas with 2.3%. Farmers were the only ones to have a significant reduction in poverty incidence at -1.6% from 2018 to 2021. The PSA said individuals residing in rural areas logged the highest number of poor population in 2021 with 13.67 million, followed by children with 10.46 million, and women with 9.99 million. Persons aged 15 and above with disability recorded the least number of poor population in 2021 with 271,000, followed by fisherfolk with 348,000, and senior citizens with 1.2 million, it added. Maricel Cruz
Cost-cutting Accenture to cut 19,000 jobs worldwide Du30 tops Pahayag poll of possible Senate candidates in 2025 elections
TECH consultancy Accenture announced Thursday (Friday in Manila) it will be cutting around 19,000 jobs, or 2.5 percent of its workforce, spread over the next 18 months, as part of a cost-cutting effort. In a filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission, the Dublin-headquartered company said it expects to incur $1.5 billion in costs as a result of the downsizing, including $1.2 billion directly related to the layoffs. About half of the jobs lost are in administrative or support functions, not in areas that lead to billing of customers,
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the company said. In the Philippines, Accenture has 50,000 employees and touts itself “as one of the largest and most mature IT companies in the country, with a long and successful track record of delivering complex technology-based solutions and outsourcing capabilities.” Accenture’s most recent annual report said it had 721,000 employees worldwide in 2022. “While we continue to hire, especially to support our strategic growth priorities... we initiated actions to streamline our op-
erations,” the company said in a release. The tech consulting and optimization company hired about 100,000 people in its 2022 fiscal year, which ended in August last year. “We’re going after structural costs, right, to ensure that we’re in a better position,” chief executive Julie Sweet said on an earnings call Thursday. “We’ve been dealing with the difficult challenges of compounding wage inflation and we’ve been doing that with pricing but we’ve also been doing that with cost efficiencies and digitizing,” Sweet said. AFP
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Business ................................................................. A4 Sports.......................................................................... B2 Entertainment ......................................... B3 Pets................................................................................... B4
‘No unli access for US troops under EDCA’
UN hits Ukraine, Russia for POW ‘executions’
NEWS | A2
WORLD| A3
n By MARICEL V. CRUZ IF SENATORIAL elections were held today, former President Rodrigo Duterte would top the race if he were a candidate – as indicated in a survey conducted by PUBLiCUS Asia, which released the results this week. In a statement, the polling firm said its Pahayag Quarter 1 2023 voting disposition survey contained 34 names and showed that the former President got 55 percent of respondents to top the would-be Senate list. The list is also composed of reelectionists, new names, and “balik Senado” (returning senators). The next senatorial elections are in year 2025. Duterte, who stepped down as President in May last year, received high support from Mindanao (66%) and among 30 to 39-yearolds (68%). Dr. Willie Ong, a candidate for vice president in 2022 and the Senate in 2019, was second among respondents at 49%. He was preferred by 58% of Metro Manila
voters and was the choice of voters from 40 to 49 years. Would-be reelectionists Christopher “Bong” Go and Maria Imelda “Imee” Marcos are statistically tied at 42% and 41%, respectively. Francisco “Isko Moreno” Domagoso (36 percent), Vicente “Tito” Sotto (36 percent), and Panfilo “Ping” Lacson (35 percent) rounded out the Top 7 in the survey. The next five are Ronald “Bato” dela Rosa and Gilbert “Gibo” Teodoro, tied at 30%, Maria Leonor “Leni” Robredo at 28%, Jose Manuel “Chel” Diokno at 27%, and Harry Roque at 26%. The Pahayag First Quarter is an independent and non-commissioned survey conducted by PUBLiCUS Asia Inc. It is a nationwide purposive sampling survey comprised of 1,500 respondents randomly drawn from the market research panel of over 200,000 Filipinos maintained by the Singapore office of PureSpectrum, a USbased panel marketplace with multinational presence.