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DND CHIEF: China intent on occupying WEST PH sea. Inquirer Newsletter. April 5, 2021.

JOYFUL HOPE Pope Francis exhorts Catholics to remain hopeful more than a year into the pandemic and calls for the swift rollout of vaccines to the world’s poorest in his Easter Sunday address at St. Peter’s Basilica at the Vatican, which cardinals and bishops attended. REUTERS

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Teen pregnancies rise in Cordillera

BAGUIO CITY—The number of teen pregnancies in the Cordillera when the country began its yearlong home restriction for minors has nearly doubled, records from the region’s Commission on Population (Popcom) showed. —STORY BY Vincent Cabreza

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Fueling a brighter future for PH

The already considerable toll on the Philippine economy caused by the raging COVID-19 pandemic and the severe lockdowns imposed to contain the disease continues to rise, with more Filipinos forced out of work and businesses either closing down or mightily struggling to survive. —STORY BY Tina Arceo-Dumlao

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DND CHIEF: China intent on occupying WEST PH sea

The Philippine defense chief on Sunday pressed his attack against the monthlong presence of dozens of Chinese vessels at a reef, accusing China of planning to again occupy maritime features in the West Philippine Sea or areas within the country’s exclusive economic zone (EEZ). The dispute erupted last month when Manila lodged a diplomatic protest with Beijing and demanded the withdrawal from the Julian Felipe (Whitsun) Reef of more than 200 Chinese maritime militia vessels.

The military reported that 44 of them were still moored at the reef last week and nearly 200 more were scattered around other reefs and Pag-asa (Thitu), the biggest island occupied by Filipinos within the country’s 370-kilometer EEZ.

“The continued presence of Chinese maritime militias in the area reveals their intent to further occupy features in the West Philippine Sea,” Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana said in a statement on Sunday.

On Saturday, Lorenzana said he was “no fool” to believe the Chinese explanation that the ships were just fishing boats that had taken shelter at the reef due to bad weather, as the embassy had explained.

He said the weather was fine and there was no reason for them to remain at the reef. “Get out of there,” he said in Filipino.

In what is turning out to be a virtual verbal skirmish with the Philippine defense chief, the Chinese Embassy on Saturday evening shot back at Lorenzana for making “wanton remarks.”

“The Chinese Embassy has taken note of the perplexing statement by Philippine Defense Secretary on Chinese fishing vessels around Niu’e Jiao in the South China Sea,” the embassy said in a statement, calling the reef by its Chinese name.

It maintained its claim that the reef was part of China’s Nansha Islands and a “traditional fishing ground” for the Chinese “for many years.” Nansha is what China calls the Spratlys archipelago, which is composed of reefs, atolls and islets that straddle the South China Sea. —WITH REPORTS FROM TINA G. SANTOS AND NESTOR CORRALES

Editorial

Faster paperwork not enough

To attract many more firms—especially the smaller ones that only have enough money to buy vaccines for their workers—to launch their own vaccination programs, thus relieving the government of the task of inoculating those in the private sector work force and speeding up the reopening of the economy, the administration needs to be crystal-clear that it will indeed do away with the 'donation' provision for good.

Read full story: opinion.inquirer.net