00:01A hopefully good yet rainy Monday afternoon to all. Patrick Dezos here for PTV News Now.
00:07And let's get down to what's happening here in the homeland and elsewhere.
00:12She may have come and gone quickly, leaving mostly a trail of roads, underwater and homes flooded in and out.
00:19Then again, severe tropical storm Cricing had the Department of Public Works and Highways counting its losses.
00:25Earlier today, the Department of Public Works and Highways claimed in a statement the combo effects of severe tropical storm Cricing, a.k.a. WIFA,
00:35along with the enhanced effects of the southwest monsoon left a trail of damage in the homeland worth over half a billion pesos.
00:43Initial assessment from the DPWH putting damage calculated at P526 million,
00:49of which P322 million was attributed to flood control structures, P195 million to national roads, and P9 billion on ruined bridges.
01:00At least four national roads in the Ilocos region, Cordilleras, and Zamboanga del Norte are still closed to traffic as of press time,
01:09while 12 previously closed national road sections have since reopened.
01:13When President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. pays U.S. President Donald Trump a visit tomorrow at the White House,
01:22their talks by the West Wing's fireplace will focus purely on trade and tariffs,
01:28and nothing on security matters on the West Philippine Sea, lest President Trump volunteers to bring it up.
01:35As such, Philippine National Security Advisor Eduardo Año and Secretary of State slash National Security Chief Marco Rubio met in Washington, D.C. earlier today
01:46to hash over issues of mutual interest with security matters on the West Philippine Sea tops on the agenda.
01:54In their face-off, both Año and Rubio agreed on a need to deepen security and economic cooperation as part of a strategic partnership
02:03to maintain deterrence and freedom of navigation in both the South China and West Philippine Seas.
02:10They also expressed their shared views in engaging and enhancing relations with like-minded and freedom-loving partner nations
02:18to ensure a rules-based international order in the Indo-Pacific region.
02:24For his part, and as always, Rubio assured Año of America's ironclad commitment to the Philippines under the Trump administration.
02:35It is dubbed the land of fire and ice-based elements from which planet Earth was partly formed.
02:41But somehow, in this small piece of island between the North Atlantic and the Arctic Sea,
02:47fire and ice mysteriously coexist to create a dramatic and stunning landscape,
02:53people from all over come over to behold.
02:57And so, as the wind and rain conspire to drench and drown parts of the homeland on the other side of the planet,
03:04the light on the planet, tourists delight on the beauty of nature's deadliness from a distance in a place where fire and ice mesh.
03:14And that's it up for this afternoon's show.
03:16Join us later on for our nightly edition of Breaking Stories.
03:20Patrick DeSus here, urging you to stay dry and under shelter.
