News Briefs: April 26, 2019

Duterte names Medialdea OIC

President Duterte has named Executive Secretary Salvador Medialdea officer in charge from April 24 to 28, while the Chief Executive takes part in the second Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation being held in Beijing. According to Special Order No. 420 released on Thursday, it was necessary to designate an OIC “to take care of the day-to-day operations in the Office of the President and oversee the general administration of the executive department” until Duterte flies back to Davao City on Saturday night. —JULIE M. AURELIO

138 police ‘house sitters’ inducted

The Philippine National Police on Thursday inducted into service new personnel who would mainly “stay at [police] stations” while their more experienced colleagues are deployed nationwide for the May 13 elections. Police Gen. Oscar Albayalde, the PNP chief, issued badges of honor and service firearms to the 138 police personnel from the PNP Academy’s “Sansiklab” class of 2019, and said that they will undergo commando training and take the basic internal security operations course after the elections. —JEANNETTE I. ANDRADE

Cebu Pacific’s GetGo program hacked

Cebu Pacific’s GetGo, a rewards point system, has been hacked, the budget carrier reported to the National Privacy Commission on Thursday. Privacy Commissioner Raymund Enriquez Liboro said in a statement that Cebu Air Inc. had notified them of an “unauthorized breach” of GetGo’s website database. As of press time, however, the extent and nature of the breach were yet to be determined, Liboro said, adding that it was not clear at this point if customers were affected. Since its launch over four years ago, the rewards program has catered to over 4 million active members, the airline company said in a previous statement.

—ROY STEPHEN C. CANIVEL