Here鈥檚 a quick roundup of today鈥檚 top stories:
PhilHealth assures benefits to continue even without 2025 subsidy
The Philippine Health Insurance Corporation (PhilHealth) on Monday committed to continue providing health benefits for Filipinos nationwide, assuring the public that it has enough funds to do so.
PhilHealth made the pronouncement after the bicameral conference committee decided to completely cut its P74.431 billion subsidy for 2025 down to zero.
LPA to become tropical cyclone; bring rain in Visayas, Mindanao
The low-pressure area (LPA) inside the Philippine area of responsibility (PAR) was forecast to develop into a tropical cyclone in 24 hours.
In a weathercast early Tuesday morning, Rhea Torres of the Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration (Pagasa) said the LPA was 鈥渦pgraded to high鈥� as of 2 a.m., Dec. 17, 鈥渨hich means that in the next 24 hours, this LPA we are monitoring may become a tropical cyclone.鈥�
At last, Mary Jane Veloso is returning to the Philippines after 14 years behind bars in Indonesia, nine of which she spent on death row for a drug trafficking conviction, an Indonesian official and Malaca帽ang announced on Monday.
鈥淭he day of her homecoming was not [on] the horizon before, but now we see it breaking at dawn,鈥� the National Union of Peoples鈥� Lawyers (NUPL) said, after Indonesia鈥檚 deputy coordinator of immigration and corrections, Nyoman Gede Surya Mataram, confirmed the Filipino domestic helper鈥檚 imminent repatriation.