THE CAPITAL region Metro Manila recorded the most number of new coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) infections among all areas nationwide on Dec. 17, pandemic monitoring group OCTA said on Sunday.

The National Capital Region (NCR), whose positivity rate had increased recently, accounted for 471 of the 1,196 cases recorded on Saturday, OCTA fellow Fredegusto P. David said in a report, citing data from the Department of Health (DoH).

Metro Manila was followed by nearby provinces such as Cavite with 75 cases, Rizal with 66, Laguna with 53, and Bulacan with 52 cases.

Cebu in central Philippines was also on the list with 36 cases, followed by Isabela with 26, Iloilo with 24, Pangasinan and Tarlac with 22 each, and Batangas with 19 cases.

In November, OCTA fellow Fredegusto P. David told BusinessWorld that the country might record as many as 3,000 daily COVID-19 infections in December as Filipinos hold holiday activities.

He said daily cases in the country might significantly increase if there are threats from new subvariants.

The DoH had said Filipinos should learn to live with the virus in the “new normal,” noting that “variants will continue to emerge.”

“The DoH likewise underscored that continued strengthening of existing management and surveillance system is key to living with COVID-19 in the new normal,” it said in a November statement. “We have to start demystifying variants. Viruses naturally mutate with continued transmission–this is a natural occurrence.”

Mr. Marcos, 64, said in his first address to Congress in July that the Philippines would no longer enforce lockdowns.

More than 90% of Filipinos are satisfied with the Marcos administration’s pandemic response, according to a recent OCTA survey.

The poll conducted from Oct. 23 to 27 showed nine out of 10 Filipinos, or 92% of adults, “approve” the National Government’s COVID-19 prevention efforts.

The approval rating increased by 10% since the last OCTA survey conducted in March 2022. The survey also saw an increase in all major areas and socio-economic classes.

However, a decrease in approval rating was observed in September 2021 and February 2022 survey results, OCTA said, citing its trend analysis.

“Coincidentally, there were periods when COVID-19 surges occurred, notably last August 2021 and January 2022, respectively.”

The pollster interviewed 1,200 male and female probability respondents aged 18 years and above from AB, C, D and E classes. The survey had a margin of error ±3 percent.

Globally, the number of new weekly cases remained stable at +2% during the week of Dec. 5 to 11 as compared to the previous week, with over 3.3 million new cases reported, the World Health Organization said in a weekly report posted on Dec. 14.

The number of new weekly deaths increased by more than 10% compared to the previous week, with over 9,700 new deaths reported, it said. As of Dec. 11, over 645 million confirmed cases and over 6.6 million deaths have been reported globally. — Kyle Aristophere T. Atienza

FORMER PRESIDENT Rodrigo R. Duterte acknowledged the historical legacy left by Communist Party of the Philippines founder Jose Maria Sison, but said his death “marks the end of an era” of armed struggle.

Mr. Sison, who died at the age of 83 on Friday in the Netherlands where he had been living in exile since 1987, was known for his “radical ideas that affected the course of the country’s history,” Mr. Duterte said in a statement released late Saturday.

“While Mr. Sison and I have had many disagreements — especially in the ways in which he chose to pursue and effect change in the country — I would like to believe that, at the end of the day, we shared the same dream of creating a better future for every Filipino,” the former Philippine leader said.

Mr. Duterte was a student of Mr. Sison at the Lyceum of the Philippines University, where the latter taught  English and political science.

Mr. Duterte said he hopes that the communist leader’s death will pave the way for “the end of insurgencies in the Philippines and the revolutionary movement that he has founded as well.”

Peace Secretary Carlito G. Galvez Jr., who held the same position under the Duterte administration, expressed a similar sentiment.

“With the death of Mr. Sison, it is our hope that it will also put an end to the local communist armed conflict that claimed the lives of so many Filipinos and pushed back development in the countryside,” Mr. Galvez said in a statement on Sunday.

Mr. Sison died peacefully at around 8:40 pm on Friday after a two-week confinement in a hospital in Utrecht, according to his party.

Mr. Sison established the Communist Party of the Philippines on Dec. 26, 1968. The group’s armed wing, the New People’s Army (NPA), has been waging one of the world’s longest-running insurgencies.

Mr. Duterte pushed peace talks with the Maoist movement in 2016, with Norway hosting the negotiations.

But the talks did not last long, with Mr. Duterte and his military officials citing attacks by the NPA rebels. Negotiators representing the communist movement had belied Mr. Duterte’s claims.

“From the time he led the founding of  the new communist party in 1968 and NPA in 1969, Jose Ma. Sison was the unrivalled strategist and tactician of the revolutionary movement in the country,” Temario C. Rivera, who heads the Center for People Empowerment in Governance, said in a Facebook Messenger chat.

Mr. Rivera said one of Mr. Sison’s original contributions to revolutionary theory and practice was his analysis of waging a peoples’ war in an archipelago, looking at the combination of centralized leadership and decentralized commands in pursuing the armed struggle.

He said, “His imprisonment and eventual exile did not in any way diminish his preeminent role in the revolutionary movement.” — Kyle Aristophere T. Atienza