News in Pictures: December 26, 2024
AMUSEMENT IN CHRISTMAS
Families visit Fiesta Carnival (above, right) in Quezon City on a rainy Christmas Day. The iconic Cubao amusement center was a popular landmark in the 1970s that endured in the public’s imagination, even after its closure in 2000 with the decline of the carnival experience and the rise of computer games.
Like other past landmarks, such as the former aviary in Greenbelt and the demolished Rizal Theater also in Makati, Fiesta Carnival continued to be written about as part of the country’s modern heritage and popular culture.
But amid the return of most things “retro,” from typewriters to vinyl records, Fiesta Carnival was revived in December last year, attracting a new generation of patrons.
Other establishments have also drawn the public’s interest because of their unique concept, such as Tales of Illumina (photos below) on Commonwealth Avenue, Quezon City, which is designed as a place of enchantment, inspired by Philippine folklore. —GRIG C. MONTEGRANDE
HEALTH CHIEF DOES ROUNDS
Health Secretary Teodoro Herbosa on Saturday visits St. Luke’s Medical Center in Quezon City as part of a weekend inspection of hospitals in Metro Manila before the Christmas holidays.
On Friday he criticized what he called the “broken system” of the Philippine Health Insurance Corp. for treating its funds like a pension fund instead of spending it for people’s medical needs.
“That’s why their emphasis has been to protect the fund and resist paying the health benefits of its members!” he said on Facebook. As health chief, Herbosa heads the state insurer’s board of directors. —RICHARD A. REYES
AERIAL SURVEY
The BRP Teresa Magbanua of the Philippine Coast Guard (PCG) on Saturday distributes food packs to Filipino fishermen in the West Philippine Sea.
The Inquirer on Dec. 19 joined an air patrol by the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (BFAR) that located China Coast Guard and Chinese Navy ships in the vicinity waters of Panatag (Scarborough) Shoal.
Not far from the Chinese vessels were the Teresa Magbanua and another PCG ship that also distributed food to the fishermen.
The BFAR plane was told by the Chinese Navy to leave the area, but it responded to the ship that it was “way beyond the 200-nautical-mile EEZ (370-kilometer exclusive economic zone) of your country. Please review your chart!” —PHOTO FROM PCG
FREEBIES FOR ‘NOCHE BUENA’
Pasig City Hall personnel on Monday deliver food packs house-to-house to residents in Barangay Maybunga under the city government’s “Pamaskong Handog 2024” program.
The national government itself has been carrying out various programs to ease the cost of living among poorer Filipinos, from the cheaper goods sold by the Kadiwa stores of the Department of Agriculture to the financial and other assistance programs of the Department of Social Welfare and Development. —LYN RILLON
