KUWTT: Diokno, Pascual join BBM Cabinet | May 27, 2022

Good day. Here are the stories for The Manila Times for Friday, May 27, 2022.

READ: Diokno, Pascual join BBM Cabinet

PRESIDENT-ELECT Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. has tapped Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) Governor Benjamin Diokno to be his Finance secretary. Marcos also tapped international development banker Alfredo Pascual as Trade and Industry secretary and SMC Tollways chief Manny Bonoan as Public Works and Highways secretary. Diokno on Thursday confirmed he has accepted the invitation to head the Department of Finance. The 74-year-old Diokno was Budget and Management secretary under the Estrada administration from 1998 to 2001 and again under President Rodrigo Duterte from 2016 to 2019. Taking Diokno’s place at BSP will be Monetary Board member Felipe Medalla. The president-elect has so far named 13 appointees to his Cabinet.

Pascual, a former president of the University of the Philippines (UP), currently heads the Management Association Philippines.

Bonoan served as Public Works and Highways undersecretary for the Visayas and Mindanao in 1998. The position is relatively new, created when Duterte assumed office in 2016, and with Sen. Christopher Lawrence “Bong” Go as its first head. Lagdameo is a three-term legislator from Davao del Norte’s second district and a longtime friend of Marcos.

READ: Comelec proclaims party-list winners

THE Commission on Elections (Comelec) proclaimed on Thursday the winning party-list groups in the May 9 elections. Of the 55 party-list groups that were proclaimed at the Philippine International Convention Center (PICC) in Pasay City, only ACT-CIS is entitled to three seats in the 19th Congress. Five — 1-Rider Party-list, Tingog, 4PS, Ako Bicol, and Sagip — are entitled to two seats each. All the other party-lists will have at least one seat. One party-list organization, the United Senior Citizen, tallied enough votes to entitle it to one seat but was not proclaimed pending resolution of its appeal on the denial of its registration. The party-list groups will serve for three years. In his remarks, Comelec Chairman Saidamen Pangarungan stressed the importance of party-list groups in the democratic process.

READ: PH to uphold tribunal’s maritime ruling – Marcos

PRESIDENT-ELECT Ferdinand Marcos Jr. said Thursday he will uphold an international ruling against Beijing over the disputed South China Sea, insisting he will not let China trample on the Philippines’ maritime rights. China claims almost all of the resource-rich waterway, through which trillions of dollars in trade passes annually, with competing claims from the Philippines, Brunei, Malaysia, Taiwan and Vietnam. Beijing has ignored a 2016 decision by The Hague-based Permanent Court of Arbitration that declared its historical claim to be without basis.In his strongest comments yet on the longstanding source of tensions between the two nations, Marcos said he will not “allow a single millimeter of our maritime coastal rights to be trampled upon.”

READ: Marcos open to Duterte as anti-drug czar

PRESIDENT-ELECT Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. is open to the possibility of President Rodrigo Duterte serving in his administration as “anti-drugs czar.” Marcos clarified that there was no formal offer tendered to Duterte but that he will welcome any support when it comes to the government’s continuing efforts to address the drug problem.

READ: Quarantine facilities for monkeypox eyed

THE Department of Health (DoH) said that it is preparing possible isolation facilities for monkeypox cases, although the disease is not as contagious as Covid-19. In a statement, the DoH said that its Field Implementation and Coordination Team (FICT) and One Hospital Command Center (OHCC) are working on designating isolation facilities. The move is in line with the department memorandum outlining the interim guidelines for the implementation of monkeypox surveillance screening, management and infection control. The DoH said that during the activation of the first two doors of the four-door national alert system for emergency diseases, which consists of border controls for points of origin and points of entry, the Research Institute for Tropical Medicine (RITM) will be the main isolation facility for suspected, probable and confirmed cases of monkeypox.

BUSINESS: Finex vows support for Marcos, Duterte

Topping business, the Financial Executives Institute of the Philippines (Finex) on Wednesday congratulated President-elect Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. and his running mate, Vice President-elect Sara Duterte-Carpio, on their victory in the May 9 elections. Finex President Michael Arcatomy Guarin said in a statement said the pair will be assuming their roles “at a critical time in our nation’s history”.

SPORTS: Baltazar inks deal with B.League team

In sports, De La Salle University standout Justine Baltazar has signed a deal with the Hiroshima Dragonflies in Japan’s B.League. The 6-foot-7 Baltazar averaged 12.6 points, 10.8 rebounds and 3.1 assists per game to make his third Mythical Team selection in his final playing year in the recently concluded UAAP Season 84 men’s basketball tournament. He applied for the PBA Rookie Draft but withdrew his name days before the draft. Ultimately, Baltazar went to the B.League, with his family being the primary reason for his decision.

READ: Opinion and editorial

Rigoberto Tiglao and Ruben Torres are today’s front page columnists. Tiglao continues to hit anti-Marcos academics, while Torres discusses on giving workers a “benefit of the doubt”.

Today’s editorial discusses the Philippines’ performance at the recently-concluded Southeast Asian Games in Vietnam. Read a full version on the paper’s opinion section or listen to the Voice of the Times.

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This is EJ Gomez reporting.