The bill would also obligate social media platforms to require users to register their real names and phone numbers before creating an account.

Malacañang on Friday thanked Congress for the speedy ratification of next year's national budget, an outlay that it said is necessary to implement economic recovery programs.

In a briefing, DOH Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire said the government will intensify border control, detection of cases, implementation of minimum public health standards,\ and vaccination.

Typhoon “Odette” (international name: Rai) has intensified further as it made landfall Thursday at 1:30 p.m. over Siargao island in Surigao del Norte, according to state weather bureau PAGASA.

According to DOH Undersecretary Myrna Cabotaje, around 338 towns and cities in the 11 regions failed to join the government’s vaccination push.

According to the state weather bureau, the center of Odette’s eye is expected to make an initial landfall in the vicinity of Siargao-Bucas Grande Islands or Dinagat Islands between 1 p.m. and 3 p.m.

Leaders in both houses of Congress were the top spenders in the legislature in 2020, according to an itemized list of lawmakers’ expenses in the first year of the pandemic released by the Commission on Audit.

As of Wednesday, 0.8% of Filipinos have received a booster dose of the COVID-19 vaccine.

Rights defenders, Palabay said, are "the kind of seeds that blossom into something that is beyond the self into something that is cognizant of our nation’s history of struggles."

'Odette' is forecast to make landfall in the vicinity of Dinagat Islands, Siargao-Bucas Grande Islands, or the northern portion of Surigao del Sur Thursday afternoon.