Top Stories
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.
Landlords and political clans clash in Leyte polls
By MURIN VELASCO
KAISAHAN Tungo sa Kaunlaran ng Kanayunan at Repormang Pansakahan Inc.
THE three-cornered fight in Leyte’s local polls this May 10 is mainly a battle of political clans and landlords that include celebrity TV host Lucy Torres-Gomez.
Torres-Gomez, who belongs to a landed family, is the last-minute substitute for her disqualified husband Richard Gomez as the Liberal party’s congressional candidate in Leyte’s fourth district.
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80% of Bukidnon still without PCOS machines
THE Commission on Elections has yet to deliver precinct count optical scan (PCOS) machines to about 80 percent of polling places in the province of Bukidnon with barely two days to go before Monday’s polls.
The Parish Pastoral Council for Responsible Voting (PPCRV) has monitored the delivery of only 115 PCOS machines for 110 clustered precincts in Malaybalay City in Bukidnon.
Panlilio to appeal Comelec ruling on recount to SC
By Movement for Principled Politics in Pampanga and Citizen Journalists-Pampanga
PAMPANGA. –Pampanga Gov. Ed Panlilio said yesterday he will appeal to the Supreme Court the ruling of the Commission on Elections declaring his rival Lilia Pineda as the winner in the 2007 gubernatorial elections here.
“This is not a matter of saving a personality but a matter of saving Pampanga and the crusade for good governance,” Panlilio said.
Comelec-UP Clark row over poll precinct heats up
By Movement for Principled Politics in Pampanga and Citizen Journalists-Pampanga
SAN FERNANDO, Pampanga. —Tension runs high at the University of the Philippines-San Fernando Extension in the Clark Free Port (UP Clark) because of the school director’s continuous refusal to allow the Commission on Elections (Comelec) to use their covered court as a polling precinct this May 10 elections.
UP Clark Director Juliet Mallari has threatened to file a case of illegal trespassing against Comelec representatives, Smartmatic technicians, and their three police escorts who entered the school premises to install one unit of Precinct Count Optical Scan (PCOS) machine last May 3.
Group: Poll deferment will lead to ‘Gloria-forever scenario’
BY BUENA BERNAL AND JONALYN FORTUNO
AMID calls to postpone the May 10 elections following technical glitches in the voting machines, a group expressed fears that President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo would prolong her nine-year reign and ‘forever’ remain in power.
The Concerned Citizen Movement (CCM) saw the proposed poll deferment, made by Arroyo’s election lawyer Romulo Macalintal, as a tactic to execute the “Gloria-forever scenario.”
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Running with the ‘enemy’: Local bets forge mixed alliances
DESPITE the heated contests among the standard-bearers of the Liberal Party (LP), Nacionalista Party (NP), Pwersa ng Masang Pilipino (PMP) and Lakas-Kampi-CMD (Lakas), some of their local bets are teaming up with supposed rivals, blurring party lines and making party platforms irrelevant.
Political strategists and observers said local candidates are doing whatever it takes to win, securing the best possible configurations to ensure victory, even if it means forging alliances with candidates and parties on the opposite side of the political fence.
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What voters want in a candidate
By Movement for Principled Politics in Pampanga and Citizen Journalists Pampanga
What is the most important trait that Kapampangan voters want to see in a candidate?
According to the religious organization Dilaab Foundation, voters want candidates who are “God-fearing.” Fr. Carmelo Diola, overall coordinating steward of the foundation, said “discernment circles” consulted by Dilaab point to this quality as most desired by voters.
PPCRV Dagupan finds PCOS machines in good order
By FRANKLIN Q. DE GUZMAN
Archdiocesan Social Action Apostolate Lingayen-Dagupan
DAGUPAN CITY.—All in good condition.
This was the conclusion of a contingent from the Parish Pastoral Council for Responsible Voting (PPCRV) of the Archdiocese of Lingayen-Dagupan (ALD) that inspected the Precinct Count Optical Scan (PCOS) machines that will be used in some parts of Pangasinan on voting day.
In a warehouse somewhere in the city, Archdiocesan Social Action Apostolate of Lingayen-Dagupan executive chairperson Fr. Oliver Mendoza, PPCRV-LD chairperson Fr. Allen Romero and three Church volunteers checked the security of more than 1,000 PCOS machines to be used in Pangasinan’s Districts 2, 3, 4 and 5.
Region 12 braces for election day
By DANNY SABINO
Kapayapaan Kapatid Council
GENERAL SANTOS CITY. – “Siguradong matutuloy ang election na walang dayaang mangyayari (The elections will happen and there will be no cheating).”
So said Police Chief Inspector Jomar Alexis Yap of the Philippine National Police Region 12 during a recent interview at the local radio station’s “Talakayan ng Pulisya at Masa.”
Since January, more than 6,000 Commission on Elections checkpoints and 62 police checkpoints have been set up. More than 149 firearms were confiscated in compliance with the gun ban.