With former president Rodrigo Duterte detained in ICC custody, legal uncertainties rose amid unprecedented conditions when he was elected mayor of Davao City in the May 12 midterm elections.
The state-related violence recorded by the Sandatahang Dahas monitor shifts its epicenter from Mindanao to Luzon, with the National Capital Region leading with 11 cases.
The results of the May 12 polls gave the vice president's camp more ammunition for the almost simultaneous battle in Congress — the speakership in the House of Representatives and impeachment in the Senate — to discredit the Marcos administration and eventually wrest power by 2028.
News headlines from May 15 used the words nullified, voided, reversed and remanded to refer to an April 30 ruling of the Court of Appeals in granting a petition for certiorari on a drug case in which former senator Leila de Lima had been acquitted.
The Sara kiss of death was especially seen in the city of Manila and in Batangas. She deliberately made negative campaigning for the congressmen who were potential prosecutors in her forthcoming impeachment trial in the senate. These congressmen were among the most vocal in the House Quadcomm hearings. Representative Joel Chua (Manila, 3rd district) headed the House committee on good governance that conducted seven hearings on Sara’s red-flagged use of confidential funds.
With Bam Aquino poised to make a Senate comeback based on his high ranking in the May 12 polls, VERA Files Fact Check observed a barrage of posts online questioning the role he played in the passing of the Universal Access to Quality Tertiary Education Act.
The early voting hours and assignment of priority polling places still led to inconveniences among senior citizens.
Elections give voters an opportunity every three years to reject non-performing, misbehaving, incompetent, corrupt and other types of bad leaders and replace them with aspirants suitable for the position. Every election presents a chance for improvement, not deterioration of the quality of the leaders we choose.
The Makabayan bloc has a different goal than traditional politicians: build a “people’s opposition” which will go beyond the May 12 elections. Garnering support for key issues they advocate is the impact they want to make.
A Facebook page falsely claimed that leftist party-lists are linked to the NPA. Groups cannot be registered as party-lists if they advocate for violence.
