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SEN. Manuel Roxas of the Liberal Party continues to lead other vice presidential candidates even as his margin over Sen. Loren Legarda of the Nacionalista Parta has narrowed since January, according to the Social Weather Stations’ poll in late February.

In the Senate race, Ramon Bong Revilla Jr.  Pilar Juliana Cayetano and Jinggoy Estrada also continue to be the leaders, the survey showed.
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THE kin of 13 journalists slain in the Nov. 23 Ampatuan massacre filed Wednesday grave misconduct charges with the National Police Commission against 62 police officers based in Maguindanao for their suspected participation in what is now the single worst attack on journalists in modern history.

The complainants also asked the Napolcom to slap 90-day preventive suspensions against the officers, who included top officers of the Maguindanao Provincial Police Office, the 1507th and 1508th Maguindanao Provincial Mobile Groups and the 15 th Regional Mobile Group of the Autonomous Region for Muslim Mindanao.
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By MINDANEWS

DAVAO CITY.– The presidential candidates present at a forum here were on the same page as far as eliminating the Private Armed Groups (PAG) or private armies in Mindanao are concerned, must be dismantled soonest as these would be used by traditional politicians as “cheating machineries.”

Former Defense Secretary and ruling party Lakas-Kamppi-CMD standard bearer Gilbert Teodoro said local peace and order councils shall take a lead in dismantling private armies.  More…

By MINDANEWS

DAVAO CITY.–The lack of consultations and sincerity of the panels put the peace process between the government and Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) at bay, according to the candidates in attendance at the presidential forum here on Tuesday.

In the Panaghisgot-hisgut, a 2010 Mindanao Presidential Forum, at the Ateneo de Davao University covered basketball court, presidential aspirants Gilbert Teodoro, Sen. Richard Gordon, Sen. Jamby Madrigal, Councilor John Carlo Delos Reyes, Nicanor Perlas and Eddie Villanueva gave a failing remark to the peace negotiations with the MILF. More…

FOURTEEN senatorial candidates led by incumbent senators Ramon Revilla Jr., Jinggoy Estrada and Miriam P. Defensor-Santiago stand a statistical chance of winning if elections were held now, according to Pulse Asia.

Revilla, Estrada and Santiago are in fact statistically tied for first place, the February 2010 pre-election survey showed.
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THE race to Malacañang has become very tight with the top two “presidentiables” locked in a statistical tie, a Social Weather Stations survey commissioned by BusinessWorld showed.

The poll, the third conducted by the survey research institution for this newspaper, found the front-runners — senators Benigno Simeon “Noynoy” C. Aquino III and Manuel “Manny” B. Villar Jr. — both losing ground among voters with little over two months to go before the May 10 national elections.
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LT. GEN. Delfin Bangit will be the next Armed Forces chief of staff, succeedingLt. Gen. Victor Ibrado who is retiring on Wednesday.

Bangit, the current Army chief, is a known Arroyo loyalist, having been been head of the Presidential Security Group under Gloria Arroyo. He also had a stint as chief of the Intelligence Service.

He belongs to Class ‘78 of the Philippine Military Academy, which adopted Arroyo. Class ‘78 is considered the “favored” PMA class under Arroyo with a number of them in strategic positions.  More…

LIBERAL Party standard bearer Benigno “Noynoy” C. Aquino III  has widened his lead over Nacionalista Party’s Manuel Villar in the latest survey of Pulse Asia.

In a survey conducted Feb. 21 to 25, Aquino was preferred by 36 percent on the question “Who would you vote if the 2010 elections were held today?” Villar scored 29 percent. (Read full text of Pulse Asia’s media release)

The seven percentage point difference strengthened  Aquino’s lead unlike in the Jan. 10 survey when they were statistically tied with Aquino’s 37 percent and Villar’s 35 percent.
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By RUBEN JEFFREY ASUNCION
OFW Journalism Consortium

IF elected, presidential candidates Gilberto Teodoro Jr., Manuel Villar and Richard Gordon would throw cash and strike deals with labor receiving countries in relation to overseas employment of Filipinos.

Former Defense Secretary Teodoro and Senator Villar, however, failed to say where they would get the money for the deals given the yawning budget deficit.

Only Senator Gordon identified sources of cash for his proposed $30 billion provident fund for overseas Filipino workers: “link up” the private pension fund manager Social Security System with the Government Service Insurance System.

He said the money will be managed by professional finance managers, but didn’t identify these managers.

The three candidates bared their platforms for overseas Filipino workers at a forum in January, weeks before the formal campaign period began.
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DETAINED senator Antonio Trillanes IV  said the Magdalo group’s support of Nacionalista Party’s Manuel Villar came after Liberal Party Benigno Aquino Jr. spurned  them.

Responding to a Facebook query why the reformist group of  young military officers  endorsed Villar, Trillanes said, “The group reached out to the Noynoy camp and, sadly, after weeks of waiting, they said they cannot guarantee that we would be able to serve in their administration.”

Trillanes is  chairman of the Magdalo  group of young reformist military officers who first made a stand against Gloria Arroyo in what is known as the “Oakwood munity”  on July 27, 2003. They figured in another stand against Arroyo on Nov. 29, 2007. He remains in detention with 16 other officers of the group at the Camp Crame custodial center.
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