News in Pictures: December 2, 2023
Bicameral meeting at golf club
Lawmakers of the bicameral conference committee meet at the Manila Golf and Country Club on Thursday to discuss the House and Senate versions of the P5.77-trillion national budget for next year. The committee approved with finality the removal of confidential funds from the agencies headed by Vice President Sara Duterte, the Office of the Vice President (OVP) and the Department of Education (DepEd). Duterte had sought a total of P650 million in confidential funds, including P150 million for the DepEd.
Earlier last month she said she was no longer seeking the P500 million for the OVP, but requested lawmakers to have the P150 million transferred instead to the DepEd’s National Learning Recovery Program.
Grief amid tribute
Nicolas Torre Jr. looks at a photograph of his wife, nurse Angelyn Peralta Aguirre, during a tribute on Tuesday to the four overseas FIlipino workers who were killed in the Oct .7 Hamas attacks in Israel. Aguirre was cited for her bravery in her refusal to leave her charge, an Israeli elderly. The event held at a hotel in Makati was organized by the Israeli Embassy and the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration.
Attention motorists
The Metro Manila Development Authority on Thursday fields around 70 members of its newly formed Strike Force unit around the metropolis. The Strike Force members, who are equipped with body cameras and hand-held ticket machines, are tasked with clearing operations, including cracking down on illegal parking, in major thoroughfares and in so-called Mabuhay Lanes linking Metro Manila’s cities.
No more use
Employees of the Commission on Elections on Tuesday report to the National Printing Office (NPO), where they are tasked to destroy all unused, as well as defective and rejected ballots from the Barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan elections on Oct. 30. An estimated 92 million ballots were printed by the NPO for that recently concluded exercise.
Return to negotiations
Presidential Adviser on Peace, Reconciliation and Unity Carlito Galvez Jr. shows a copy of the Philippine government’s Nov. 28 joint statement with the National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP) signifying their intention “to come up with a framework that sets the priorities” for peace talks. Galvez and other officials held a news conference that afternoon to disclose that development while NDFP leaders led by Luis Jalandoni livestreamed their press briefing from Oslo, Norway. Both sides last held talks in 2017, before then President Rodrigo Duterte issued Proclamation No. 360 terminating the negotiations.
Allies meet
Gen. Yoshida Yoshihide (second from left), chief of joint staff of the Japan Self-Defense Forces, is joined by Air Commodore Mike Kitcher (extreme left), deputy chief of joint operations of the Australian Defense Force; Brig. Gen. Rommel Cordova, assistant deputy chief of staff for plans of the Armed Forces of the Philippines; and Maj. Gen. Jay Bargeron (extreme right), director for strategic planning and policy directorate of the US Indo-Pacific Command. The military officials met in Tokyo for a four-day “Joint Service Staff Talks” beginning Nov. 28, as they discussed security issues in the Indo-Pacific region.
Art and light
An installation by artist Toym Imao Jr., a bicycle-themed sculpture entitled “Tatsulokuyan,” is rendered by light into a different artwork during the annual “Pag-iilaw” ceremony held on Friday at the University of the Philippines in Diliman, Quezon City. The whole campus was adorned with Christmas lights as part of a year-end program with the theme “Renewed Strength.”
