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IN MET R MANILAO
VOL. XXXVII • NO. 80 • 2 SECTIONS 8 PAGES MAY 7, 2023
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GOD SAVE THE KING. Britain’s King Charles III wearing the Imperial state Crown, and Britain’s Queen Camilla wearing a modified version of Queen Mary’s Crown wave from the Buckingham Palace balcony after viewing the Royal Air Force fly-past in central London on May 6, 2023, after their coronations. (Second row, left) Members of the royal family pose on the balcony, but noticeably without Price Harry and his uncle, Prince Andrew. (Second row, right) President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. and First Lady Liza Araneta-Marcos share a light moment with King Charles during Friday night’s reception at Westminster Hall.
Charles III crowned UK king
Queen Camilla also gets crown in historic first coronation since 1953
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HARLES III was crowned monarch of the United Kingdom and 14 Commonwealth realms on Saturday at Britain’s first coronation for 70 years, during a ceremony steeped in a millennium of ritual and spectacle.
After a lifetime as heir to his late mother Queen Elizabeth II, Charles, 74, became the oldest sovereign yet to be crowned at London’s Westminster Abbey. At 12:02 pm (1102 GMT), Archbishop
of Canterbury Justin Welby placed the solid-gold St Edward’s Crown on Charles’s head as a sacred and ancient symbol of the monarch’s authority. Welby also crowned Charles’s wife,
Queen Camilla, 75. Cries of “God Save the King” rang out from the 2,300-member congregation, which included foreign royalty and political leaders. US President Joe Biden, represented at the abbey by First Lady Jill Biden, tweeted his congratulations and paid tribute to the “enduring friendship” between the United States and Britain. Several world leaders, including Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr., attended the ceremony.
“We underscore the thriving relationship between the Philippines and the United Kingdom, which has been promising in increasing trade, investment, and cultural exchanges for the Filipino people,” Mr. Marcos said after a royal reception hosted by King Charles Friday evening. Trumpet fanfares sounded along with gun salutes across Britain and beyond. Returning to Buckingham Palace in the day’s second horse-drawn parade, the royal family appeared on the balcony to applause
and more chants of approbation from tens of thousands of well-wishers braving a spring downpour. Some had camped out for days. A ceremonial fly-past was scaled down due to the weather. Much of the Anglican service, in which Charles pledged “I come not to be served but to serve,” would have been recognizable to the 39 other monarchs crowned at Westminster Abbey since William the Conqueror in 1066. AFP
‘One step closer’ to improving airport services—PBBM n By JOEL ZURBANO PRESIDENT Ferdinand Marcos Jr. on Saturday expressed confidence that his administration is “one step closer” to attaining its goal of providing “safe, efficient, and sustainable” airport services in the country. Marcos made the remark after his meeting with officials of New York-based Global Infrastructure Partners (GIP), one of the world’s largest infrastructure investors, in London. “Our vision for safe, efficient, and sustainable airports in the Philippines is one step closer to reality,” he said in a Facebook post. Mr. Marcos had the chance to tour London Gatwick Airport, which is comanaged by GIP. “This learning experience has provided us with valuable insights as to how we can develop the truly world-class airports we aspire to build in the Philippines,” he said. “We had a productive meeting with Global Infrastructure Partners, the company behind Gatwick Airport’s exceptional infrastructure,
PRODUCTIVE MEETING. President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. is joined by Speaker Martin Romualdez (left), Transportation Secretary Jaime Bautista, and Philippine Ambassador to the UK Teodoro Locsin Jr. in a meeting with officials of Global Infrastructure Partners (GIP), which co-manages the London Gatwick Airport, one of the busiest airports in the world.
Obstacle racing sparks gold rush for Team PH n By RIERA U. MALLARI
GOLD! Mark Julius Rodelas celebrates after bagging a gold medal in the obstacle course race finals.
PHNOM PENH – Team Philippines formally opened its 32nd Southeast Asian Games campaign on Saturday with a world record in obstacle racing, gold medals in karate, jiu-jitsu and aquathlon, and impressive triumphs in boxing and 3x3 men’s basketball to brandish a productive day it hopes to sustain all the way to the finish. Obstacle course racers set the tone of the rewarding opener as fitness model Princess Cabuya delivered a world record for the second time in three days after she and Mark Julius Rodelas, nephew of the athletic legend Elma Muros, clinched a gold medal each in the OCR finals. Cabuya conquered the 100-meter women’s individual action in 32.732 seconds, almost three seconds in front of teammate and eventual silver medalist Kaiza de la Cerna.
technology, and operations, and were given a tour to explore some of their best practices firsthand.” The GIP, founded in 2006, is a leading global independent infrastructure fund that administers $87 billion in assets on behalf of its investor base. GIP has expressed its commitment to invest in the Philippines to improve transportation system efficiency, increase renewable energy production, and advance digital transformation. Meanwhile, the Manila International Airport Authority (MIAA) and its power distributor Manila Electric Co. started their electrical audit over the weekend following the 8-hour power outage at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport Terminal 3 on Labor Day. MIAA officer-in-charge Bryan Co said they will come up with the result of the audit after three weeks. Co said once the audit is concluded, MIAA will be able to determine the necessary equipment needed to upgrade, rehabilitate or purchase to make the power system at the terminal reliable and resilient.
OCTA expert: Virus is still here, public advisories must continue PUBLIC A Advisories should still be issued even after the World Health Organization declared COVID-19 no longer constitutes a global health emergency, the independent monitoring group OCTA Research on Saturday said. “We should still be giving advisories to our countrymen,” OCTA Research fellow Dr. Guido David said in an interview on dzBB. The WHO issued the declaration on Friday, with its chief, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, saying the pandemic had
killed “at least 20 million” people – nearly three times the under seven million deaths officially recorded. “COVID is still here and it is up to individual countries to manage the pandemic. It’s maybe not a pandemic anymore because there is no more state of emergency, but the management of disease [has to continue],” David said. He said while the COVID situation now is not the same as it was when it started, it does not mean it should no longer be given attention.
‘NTF-ELCAC won’t be abolished’
PRESIDENT Ferdinand Marcos Jr. has no intention of abolishing the National Task Force to End Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC), an official of the National Security Council said. In a statement, NSC Assistant DirectorGeneral Jonathan Malayaclarified that Executive Order No. 23, which protects the freedom of association, does not pave the way for NTF-ELCAC’s abolition. “Nowhere does it state in Executive
Order No. 23 that the NTF ELCAC will be abolished or dismantled,” he said. “As chairman of the NTF ELCAC, President Ferdinand R. Marcos, Jr. is firmly committed to the whole of nation approach to finally ending Communist terrorism in the country and he, in fact, has directed the Task Force to intensify its efforts since we have already attained strategic victory over the CPP-NPA-NDF,” Malaya added.