There should be no fast lane to inoculation against COVID-19 for the Presidential Security Group, Sen. Risa Hontiveros said Friday, pointing out that even frontline healthcare workers have not been vaccinated yet.

(Updated 4:17 p.m.) The Department of Health on Friday recorded 2,022 new coronavirus infections, bringing the national caseload to 545,300.

Police said a leader of fisherfolk group Pamalakaya was arrested Thursday evening in Agusan del Norte on crimes against humanity and murder charges denounced by the group as “trumped up.”

A week since a Mandaluyong court junked the criminal cases against journalist Lady Ann Salem and she has yet to walk free, as the prosecution blocked their release saying the ruling is not final yet.

The University of the Philippines Diliman student council called on Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana to restore the agreement that keeps out the military from its campuses without prior notice.

Residents living under general community quarantine will soon be allowed to see the big screen again as the government has allowed cinemas to reopen in those areas, subject to guidelines by the Department of Health and local government units.

Religious gatherings in areas under general community quarantine would be allowed at 50% capacity beginning Monday, Malacañang announced.

(Updated 2:24 p.m.) Sen. Win Gatchalian is calling for a more aggressive government response to the surge in teen pregnancies, sounding the alarm over the growing number of young mothers who are trapped in poverty. 

A newly-released poll showed that most Filipinos believed that the worst of the pandemic was over around two months before the more infectious coronavirus variant was detected in the country.

(Updated 5:26 p.m.) Televangelist and "Ang Dating Daan" preacher Eliseo “Brother Eli” Soriano has passed away. He was 73.