INQToday: PH-US drills off Mindoro ‘shadowed,’ shortened

Here’s a quick roundup of today’s top stories:

PH-US drills off Mindoro ‘shadowed,’ shortened

Philippine and US Navy warships steamed toward a designated meeting point off Cabra Island in Occidental Mindoro
for a joint exercise before dawn on Wednesday.

Mild swells gently rocked the Philippine Navy patrol ship BRP Gregorio del Pilar (PS-15), a former US Coast Guard cutter working for more than half a century, as it approached the area.

17,000 grade 11 students facing displacement

More than 17,000 Grade 11 students currently enrolled in state universities and colleges (SUCs) and local universities and colleges (LUCs) might be displaced once these institutions comply with a Commission on Higher Education (CHEd) order for them to stop offering the senior high school (SHS) program next school year.

Based on data sent to the Inquirer, the Department of Education (DepEd) recorded a total of 2.1 million Grade 11 students for this school year, of which 17,751 were enrolled in SUCs and LUCs.

Pimentel to DOTR: Name suppliers in PUV modernization program

Senate Minority Leader Aquilino Pimentel III on Wednesday called on the Department of Transportation (DOTr) to name the contractors who could rake in billions of pesos in profits for supplying the mini buses that would soon replace the country’s iconic passenger jeepneys as the new “kings of the road.”

According to Pimentel, the purchase of the vehicles should comply with Republic Act No. 9184 or the Government Procurement Reform Act since taxpayer money would be used to bankroll the multibillion-peso modernization program for public utility vehicles (PUVs).