Video
Aquino inaugural video
VERA Files’ Tessa Jamandre shares her video of the inaugural of Benigno Aquino III as the country’s 15th president. The video comes in five parts.
More
PRECINCT 175-A prepares for its VIP voter
By TESSA JAMANDRE
TARLAC CITY.–Precinct 175-A of the Central Azucarrera de Tarlac Elementary School was all set and ready to receive its most important voter in tomorrow’s election until members of the media appeared and inspected the place.
School officials acting as Comelec board of election inspectors said they would not allow media inside the polling place when Sen. Noynoy Aquino casts his vote tomorrow.
More
Imelda Marcos: The 80-year-old politician
By TESSA JAMANDRE
BATAC, Ilocos Norte.—The sun was at its fiercest heat that Friday noon. everyone in the van was almost drained except for the oldest among them. Instead she asked for her powder, compact mirror and lipstick to retouch her makeup. Then the van came to a stop; she was ready to alight. In her signature look, a casual but elegant outfit, the door of the van slid open and a shrieking chorus welcomed her.
Former First Lady Imelda Marcos, so known to the world for her 3,000 pairs of shoes, now in her blue-strapped Happy Feet bakya (a local brand of wooden clog), walked down the cracked plateau in the village of Gernale. She shook hands of the young and old who waited for her that day to listen to what the widow of their beloved “Apo Marcos” can do for them.
LP rings alarm bells on ‘Gloria forever’
By TESSA JAMANDRE
FORTY days into the election, the Liberal Party on Tuesday sounded off the alarm of what it said appeared to be a government scheme for a failure of election in May.
Despite the consistent lead of their presidential and vice presidential candidates—Senators Benigno Aquino III and Manuel Roxas II—in the surveys, the LP said it saw “a pattern to undermine democratic institutions to keep Gloria Arroyo in power beyond June 30.”
In a press conference, LP general campaign manager Florencio “Butch” Abad cited a possible system failure as the country tries to automate elections for the first time.
More
Si Juan Tamad, ang diablo at ang 5 milyong boto
A REVIEW of the PETA play on voter education by Ateneo’s Marc Peter Baluyan. Baluyan is a student of VERA Files trustee Luz Rimban.
Media groups mark Maguindanao massacre second month anniversary
MEDIA and human rights groups marked the second month anniversary of the Ampatuan massacre by lighting candles at the steps of the University of the Philippines College of Mass Communication in Quezon City.
Families of the victims and their lawyers attended the event. Media groups such as the Center for Community Journalism and Development (CCJD) and the National Union of Journalists (NUJP) said they were now helping the families deal with the trauma brought about by the loss of loved ones. The CCJD said it was providing assistance to journalists in Maguindanao whose lives are endangered because of their reportage of the massacre.
Baraybar’s initial observations on Maguindanao massacre
PERUVIAN forensic anthropologist Jose Pablo Baraybar on Wednesday briefed the Foreign Overseas Correspondents Association of the Philippines on his initial findings on the Nov. 23 Maguindanao massacre which left 57 people, including 30 journalists, dead.
VERA Files writer Tessa Jamandre shares her video of the briefing and the full text of Baraybar’s initial observations.
From backpack to pedicab to ‘kariton’ classroom
By TESSA JAMANDRE
CNN Hero of the Year Efren Penaflorida’s “pushcart classroom” actually started from a backpack. It was until they received a pedicab donation that Penaflorida and his group retired their worn-out backpacks that had carried all their classroom materials for their street classes.
But the pedicab could only take so much load and the maintenance for a flat tire was an additional cost. So one volunteer teacher, a corn vendor, suggested the use of the kariton or pushcart. To Penaflorida, the pushcart was the symbol of poverty that breeds illiteracy, and he wanted to change that.
Little did he know that the kariton that took him to the slums to teach kids would take him to center stage and gave the world an inspiration.
The kariton classroom and volunteer educators travel about five to six kilometers every Saturday to bring literacy to those who can’t afford school. Penaflorida, in an interview with VERA Files in early November, recalled how they used to be mocked and even been thrown stones at as they pushed their mobile classrooms along a busy street. But when the media took notice of his work and began to come out with stories about him, jeer turned into cheer.
UP Student Council leads relief, reconstruction efforts at Diliman
THE University of the Philippines Student Council recently led relief efforts to aid some 600 families in the Diliman campus hit by Tropical Storm “Ondoy.”
Called Sagip Isko, the efforts will continue through the semestral break, with the council helping in the rehabilitation and reconstruction of affected areas.
UP journalism students chronicled the Sagip Isko operations through video for their broadcast journalism class under VERA Files trrustee Luz Rimban, The reports below were submitted by Avigael Maningo, Paolo Tomacder and Jan Victor Mateo.
UN flash appeal for ‘Ondoy,’ ‘Pepeng’ victims yields $10M
By TESSA JAMANDRE
JAPAN donated Saturday $4.2 million for the victims of Tropical Storm “Ondoy” (Ketsana) and Typhoon “Pepeng” (Parma), the largest donation so far by a single country to the Philippines.
Japan’s donation was a response to the Philippine Flash Appeal launched Wednesday at the Sofitel Hotel by the United Nations and was channeled through the UN World Food Programme.
More