News Briefs: March 26, 2019

Duterte vows to reduce IS threat to ‘barest minimum’ by 2022

President Duterte has admitted that the government cannot completely eradicate the threat posed by the Islamic State (IS) in the last three years of his term.

But he promised to reduce the terrorist threat at least to the “barest minimum” before he steps down in 2022.

In a speech during the Partido Demokratiko Pilipino-Lakas ng Bayan’s campaign rally in Cagayan de Oro on Sunday night, the President spoke about the “problems in the South,” referring to the Abu Sayyaf.

“[The Abu Sayyaf is] really patterned after the [IS] … It’s a violent world. There are bombings everywhere, even inside the church. There are plenty of massacres, too,” the President said in Visayan.

The government, he admitted, has not been able to totally defeat the terrorist groups.

“We have never gone past that huge barrier. And I do not think that I would be able to solve it during the last remaining three years of my term. But I am trying my best to reduce it to the barest minimum possible,” the President said. —Julie M. Aurelio

Gasoline, diesel, kerosene pump prices rise anew

Pump prices of gasoline are going up for the seventh straight week, this time by 65 centavos per liter, while those of diesel and kerosene will increase by 10 centavos per liter.

Shell, Seaoil, Eastern Petroleum, PTT Philippines, Unioil, Total, Phoenix and Caltex announced the price increases effective at 6 a.m. on Tuesday.

Prices of the bellwether Dubai crude climbed to $67.34 per barrel on March 20 before settling to $67.09 on March 24. Gasoline prices have so far increased by P8.99 per liter since Jan. 1. —Ronnel W. Domingo