The Commission on Elections (Comelec) has exempted 48 infrastructure projects of the Public-Private Partnership (PPP) Center from the ban on public works during next year’s election period. Comelec Chair George Erwin Garcia told reporters via Viber on Friday that the certificate of exception to the PPP Center was issued Dec. 11. The PPC Center, an attached agency of the National Economic Development Authority, is mandated to facilitate the implementation of the country’s PPP programs and projects. Among the PPP projects exempted were the construction of the Philippine General Hospital Cancer Center, rehabilitation of the Manila Central Post Office, Metro Rail Transit 3 operation and maintenance, the Edsa Busway Project, Metro Manila Subway Project, North-South Commuter Railway PPP, Cebu Bus Rapid Transit, Manila Bay-Pasig River-Laguna Lake ferry, Boracay Bridge, the National Single Window integrated facilitation program, and the expansion, upgrading and operations of the Iloilo and Kalibo airports. The exemption was necessary because the Omnibus Election Code (Batas Pambansa Bilang 881) bans the release, disbursement or expenditure and the construction and delivery of materials for public works starting March 28, 2025, or 45 days before Election Day. Exempted from the prohibition are PPP and build-operate-transfer (BOT) projects. However, agency heads must submit to the commission, among other requirements, a certified list of the PPP and BOT public works projects sought to be exempted, particularly those that will start before March 28, and those undertaken by contract through public bidding held, or by negotiated contract awarded before March 28. The Comelec’s Political Finance and Affairs Department receives requests for exception, evaluates and makes recommendations on compliant submissions to the Comelec chair for his approval. INQ Subscribe to our daily newsletter By providing an email address. I agree to the Terms of Use and acknowledge that I have read the Privacy Policy .Freiburg survives late onslaught to beat Wolfsburg in Bundesliga thriller
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NEW YORK (AP) — President-elect wants to turn the lights out on daylight saving time. In a post on his social media site Friday, Trump said his party would try to end the practice when he returns to office. “The Republican Party will use its best efforts to eliminate Daylight Saving Time, which has a small but strong constituency, but shouldn’t! Daylight Saving Time is inconvenient, and very costly to our Nation,” he wrote. Setting clocks forward one hour in the spring and back an hour in the fall is intended to maximize daylight during summer months, but has long been subject to scrutiny. Daylight saving time was first adopted as a wartime measure in 1942. Lawmakers have occasionally proposed getting rid of the time change altogether. The most prominent recent attempt, a now-stalled bipartisan bill named the , had proposed making daylight saving time permanent. The measure was , whom Trump has tapped to helm the State Department. “Changing the clock twice a year is outdated and unnecessary,” Republican Sen. Rick Scott of Florida said as the Senate voted in favor of the measure. Health experts have said that lawmakers have it backward and that standard time should be made permanent. , including the American Medical Association and American Academy of Sleep Medicine, have said that it’s time to do away with time switches and that sticking with standard time aligns better with the sun — and human biology. do not observe daylight saving time. For those that do, the date that clocks are changed varies, creating a complicated tapestry of changing time differences. Arizona and Hawaii don’t change their clocks at all. Jill Colvin, The Associated Press