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Health Secretary Francisco Duque III on Thursday said around 500 Filipinos on the coronavirus-wracked cruise ship Diamond Princess in Japan would be repatriated on Sunday. Duque told reporters that like the 30 repatriates from Wuhan city in central China, the epicenter of the new coronavirus epidemic, the Filipinos from the cruise ship will be quarantined at Athletes' Village at New Clark City in Capas, Tarlac province. According to Duque, he and Interior Secretary Eduardo Ao have written to the local government of Capas to inform it of the "unanimous decision" of the Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases to again use Athletes' Village as quaran...

Keep on reading: 500 Pinoys from virus-hit ship staying at Athletes’ Village

The country's third major telco, Dito Telecommunity, could take its first paying subscribers by March 2021---delaying a debut that was anticipated as early as July this year. The actual deadline for commercial operations was clarified on Thursday by officials of Dito, which is owned by Davao-based businessman Dennis Uy and state-owned China Telecom. Dito also sought to dispel rumors it was having trouble financing its P257-billion rollout that was committed over the next five years. Adel Tamano, Dito chief administrative officer, said on Thursday the company was on track for its "technical launch" on July 2020, which comes a year after Dito was issued its license to operate. ...

Keep on reading: All eyes on 3rd telco as China-backed firm downplays delays

Shares of broadcasting giant ABS-CBN Corp. rebounded by 20.44 percent on Thursday on speculation that a shutdown might be averted by a last-minute push in Congress to pass a law renewing its franchise. The Philippine Stock Exchange index (PSEi), meantime, climbed to the 7,400 level. The main-share PSEi added 16.06 points or 0.22 percent to close at 7,413 as investors picked up clues from the ongoing fourth quarter 2019 corporate reporting season. Elsewhere in the region, trading sentiment showed mixed results. ABS-CBN, which is not part of the PSEi, recouped P3.70 to close at P21.80 per share. It is now trading at only 5.5 percent away from the 52-week high of P23 per share. ...

Keep on reading: PSEi adds 0.22% as investors pick clues from earnings reports

Spoofing Vogue's "73 Questions"---short and snappy celebrity interviews that have taken social media by storm---socialite and now social media star Melissa "Small" Laude channeled style icon Blake Lively as she flitted about in a white trumpet-sleeved top tucked into flared jeans with playful slits up to the knees. I like your shoes. The higher the heels, the closer to God. How do you lose weight? Facetune! Do you have a dream job? To be a doa. That doa's affluent lifestyle is routinely lampooned in Laude's YouTube channel, which has attracted 14,300 subscribers and advertisers in its first five months. "It" girls Isabelle Daza-Semblat and Georgina Wilson-Burnand ...

Keep on reading: Why Small Laude has big YouTube following, and it’s getting bigger

Philippine financial markets saw an exodus of short-term investments in the first month of the year, which the central bank attributed to a slew of adverse economic news both on the international and local fronts, as well as the effects of the ongoing global coronavirus outbreak. In a statement, the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) said transactions of registered foreign portfolio investments for January 2020 yielded net outflows of $486 million resulting from the $1.7 billion outflows and $1.2 billion inflows for the month. This is higher compared to the recorded net outflows in December 2019 of $321 million. "Developments for the month included continuing geopolitical tension...

Keep on reading: ‘Hot money’ fled PH in Jan due to bad news, says BSP

BACOOR CITY---A bruising playoff series with the General Santos Warriors last season in the MPBL made the Bacoor Strikers realize the immediate need for a veteran enforcer in their lineup. Playing in his first playoff game for the Strikers, Michael Mabulac quickly showed why Bacoor wanted him to play that role. "Having a guy with that level of strength, skill and the ability to lead the team is just great for us," said Bacoor coach Chris Gavina after the 6-foot-4 Mabulac powered the No. 2 seed Strikers to an emphatic 95-72 win over the Warriors in Game 1 of their best-of-three South division quarterfinal series at a packed Strike Gym. "Being part of this team meant you are i...

Keep on reading: Going hard

The Philippine economy returned to red in terms of the amount of dollars it spent in the first month of this year, outpacing the amount it earned in its transactions with the rest of the world, according to the latest data from the central bank. In a statement, the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) said the country's overall balance of payments (BOP) position---the total net value of the economy's dealings with foreign parties---posted a deficit of $1.36 billion in January 2020. This marked a reversal from the $2.7-billion dollar flow surplus recorded in the same month last year, and was also the first monthly net outflow of hard currency from the country since June 2019. "The b...

Keep on reading: PH spent more dollars than it earned in Jan

• What drives Klobuchar's disdain for Buttigieg

Starting next month, the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) will exempt from taxes small miners supplying gold to the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP). "Income derived from the following sale of gold are excluded in the gross income and shall be exempt from income tax, and consequently from withholding taxes: The sale of gold to the BSP by registered small-scale miners and accredited traders; and the sale of gold by registered small-scale miners to accredited traders for eventual sale to the BSP," a BIR issuance read. The BIR's Revenue Regulation (RR) No. 4-2020, which serves as the implementing guideline for Republic Act No. 11256 approved by President Duterte last year, was signed...

Keep on reading: Gold line signed: PH exempts small miners from taxes

WASHINGTON -- The idea that animals can experience love was once anathema to the psychologists who studied them, seen as a case of putting sentimentality before scientific rigor. But a new book argues that, when it comes to dogs, the word is necessary to understanding what has made the relationship between humans and our best friends one of the most significant interspecies partnerships in history. Clive Wynne, founder of the Canine Science Collaboratory at Arizona State University, makes the case in "Dog is Love: Why and How Your Dog Loves You." The animal psychologist, 59, began studying dogs in the early 2000s, and, like his peers, believed that to ascribe complex emotion...

Keep on reading: What makes dogs special? Science says it’s love

NLEX coach Yeng Guiao draws optimism about the future of his team---which is set to lose key center Poy Erram---from a recent heartache. The Road Warriors went 8-3 in last season's PBA Governors' Cup and copped the No. 1 seed, and the twice-to-beat protection that went with it, only to lose back-to-back to NorthPort in the quarterfinals. "If anything, that was a good sign for us," the fiery mentor told the Inquirer. "We were able to beat the top teams," he said. "We lost that triple-overtime game [against NorthPort]. But if there's ever any way to lose, it's that---losing while fighting." That game, according to Guiao, was "indicative of the character" of NLEX. The Road Warri...

Keep on reading: Busted Governors’ Cup bid to serve as Guiao’s blueprint for NLEX’s future minus star Erram

The $500-million loan being sought to further strengthen the Philippines' resilience to natural disasters will finally be up for World Bank approval in May, but no longer with the catastrophic deferred drawdown option (CAT-DDO) unlike two previous credit lines obtained from the Washington-based multilateral lender. Documents showed that the Philippines' Third Disaster Risk Management (DRM) Development Policy Loan (DPL) would likely be approved by the World Bank on May 21, instead of the previous March schedule. The development policy financing to be implemented by the Department of Finance in a single tranche operation will "strengthen the policy and institutional capacity of the g...

Keep on reading: World Bank OK of $500-M loan seen in May

It wasn't the start that San Miguel Alab Pilipinas had in mind when it reacquired celebrated import Justin Brownlee. What was supposed to be a welcome party turned out to be a dud as Brownlee missed his flight to Kuala Lumpur on Wednesday, forcing him to sit out the game against the KL Dragons in the Asean Basketball League (ABL). Playing with only two reinforcements in Nick King and Sam Deguara, Alab bowed to the Dragons, 92-80, for its sixth loss of the season at Maba Stadium in Kuala Lumpur. "Justin will only be joining us in Manila, so this game gives the other guys the chance to step up," Alab coach Jimmy Alapag said. Unfortunately for Alab, only Jordan Heading got going...

Keep on reading: Brownlee misses flight, leaving Alab way off target

LEGAZPI CITY---In Victory Village South here, residents lose sleep as they wait for midnight to save every droplet coming out of their faucets for next day's consumption. "Others also need to wake up as early as 3 a.m. to start doing their laundry, but you need to finish it before 6 a.m., before supply runs out," village chief Joie Bahoy said. More than 200 households in two zones in his coastal village have been enduring with the limited supply and low water pressure. In January, Bahoy wrote the Legazpi City Water District (LCWD) to complain about the low pressure and dirty water from their taps. "Sometimes, I wanted to request a creamer from them to add to the coffee-like ...

Keep on reading: Legazpi endures water crisis

"To see a World in a Grain of Sand And a Heaven in a Wild Flower Hold Infinity in the palm of your hand And Eternity in an hour" At its best, photography enables the kind of seeing that William Blake wrote about in "Auguries of Innocence." By training their lens on the everyday, photographers show us what we miss and what we can recover if we would just slow down and really look, with the unblinkered eyes of a child. "Photographs," Tom Epperson and Denise Weldon's joint exhibit at Art Fair Philippines 2020, continues the journey they started with "Works" in last year's art fair. Again, the subjects are still lifes, usually objects found in nature, but confronted simply ...

Keep on reading: Weldon and Epperson: A deeper way of seeing

Owners of Flywheel's in-home bikes will soon be forced to spin into enemy territory.

Calling all "Stranger Things" fans: Did you know the reason nerdy preteen Dustin Henderson doesn't have any front teeth in seasons one and three is because the actor who plays him has a rare bone condition?

It was shaping up to be a quiet day on Wall Street. Then around midday, stocks sold off sharply and investors scrambled. With no obvious catalyst triggering the selloff, worries about the coronavirus outbreak seemed to be the obvious suspect.

Earth is giving a gift to the moon that will land on the lunar surface next year.