The agency issued the statement in response to the allegation that it paid the Procurement Service of the Department of Budget and Management of the DBM twice for the same set of medical supplies.

"A vaccine passport also helps to open businesses and establishments, restarting economic and cultural activity," the bill's authors said.

A first spurred by the pandemic, the event was pretaped in front of a small live audience and other viewers who joined through videoconference.

The government walked back at the last minute on the implementation of granular lockdowns in Metro Manila largely because of unfinished guidelines on these curbs, the National Task Force Against COVID-19 said.

"Jolina" made its eighth landfall in San Juan in Batangas, while wind signals may be up due to "Kiko" starting Wednesday night.

With the international name "Conson," the storm has made seven landfalls so far, and is expected to make another in Batangas. 

Jolina was last located over the coastal waters of San Juan, Batangas with peak winds of 95 kph and gusts of up to 115 kph. It is moving west northwest at 15 kph.

Severe Tropical Storm Jolina is forecast to make its eighth landfall in the vicinity of eastern Batangas on Wednesday morning while Typhoon Kiko rapidly intensified over the Philippine Sea.

The societal cost of plastics produced globally in 2019 was found to be $3.7 trillion, a recent report published by the conservation group World Wide Fund for Nature noted.

The Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) is set to implement a project with a funding of $4.65 million to address the waste problem brought by the COVID-19 pandemic.