Archive - Top Stories

By JOSEPH ARNEL DELIVERIO Sibugay Express IPIL, Zamboanga Sibugay.–A bomb exploded in front of radio station Magic 103 FM in Barangay Kitabog, Titay town, this province, early Monday evening. The station, which is owned by Sibugay governor George T. Hofer, is about 20 meters away from his residence. Wounded in the blast was Nestor Abando,

By RIZIEL ANN AGALOOS CABREROS and CAMILLE PABLO DE JESUS (Part 1) SINCE the start of the year, the once all-pink wire mesh fences and footbridges along Metro Manila’s major roads have been gradually repainted green in line with the Metro Green project of the Metro Manila Development Authority (MMDA) under its new chair Oscar

BY ELLEN TORDESILLAS THE United Nations Educations, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) National Commission of the Philippines (UNACOM) came up with a 16-point policy recommendation for  presidential and vice-presidential candidates in the 2010 elections that included the conversion of government media network into a public broadcasting system that would serve the people rather than the

NACIONALISTA Party presidential candidate Manuel Villar, Jr.  said if he wins, the speaker of the House of Representatives will come from their party and not President Gloria Arroyo. He also challenged Liberal party presidential candidate Benigno Aquino III to come with him to Tondo so he could show to him how he lived when he

By JEREMAIAH M. OPINIANO OFW Journalism Consortium DAVAO CITY.–A government executive here warns of an increasing number of overseas Filipino workers defaulting on their loans from an economic crisis credit facility. Zenobia Caro, officer-in-charge of the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration Region XI, said she is worried about the low repayment rate among overseas Filipino workers

By CAROL ARGUILLAS MINDANEWS A day after Lakas-Kampi-CMD presidential candidate Gilbert Teodoro resigned as party chairman, Sarangani Governor Miguel  Dominguez  and Francis Manglapus yesterday tendered their  resignations  as party president and secretary general, respectively. In his letter to the national executive committee of  Lakas-Kampi-CMD, Dominguez said: “I hereby tender my resignation as party president effective

By SHERRIE ANN TORRES (Conclusion) WHEN it comes to the perks of being a lawmaker, party-list representatives are no different from congressional district representatives. Every month, they, too, receive a monthly salary of P35,000. Every year, each of them are also entitled to P70 million from the Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF) and at least

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.

ADMINISTRATION presidential candidate Gilberto Teodoro Jr. resigned Tuesday as chairman of Lakas-KAMPI-CMD to focus on the presidential campaign. Teodoro’s letter to the party’s National Executive Committee reads: “Effective immediately I am resigning as Chairman of Our Party so that I can focus all my efforts campaigning for the Presidency of the country as the official

By SHERRIE ANN TORRES VERA Files (Second of three parts) IF you think party-list representatives are as poor as their marginalized constituents, better think again. Many party-list representatives are in fact even richer than some district congressmen. Of the 21 out of the 55 party-list representatives who submitted their Statement of Assets and Liabilities and

By TESS BACALLA JAKARTA.— Never mind if the whole world may still be reeling from the shock triggered by the Maguindanao massacre owing to its sheer barbarity and that this unprecedented mass slaughter of 32 journalists in November last year may have only served to secure further the country’s position as the world’s most dangerous

By SHERRIE ANN TORRES (First of three parts) IN 1998, the Association of Philippine Electric Cooperatives or APEC decided to plunge into Philippine politics through the party-list elections. That year happened to be the first time that Filipino voters would be electing a party-list group, on top of an individual politician in their congressional districts,

By ELLEN TORDESILLAS THE Union of Foreign Service Officers has taken the position that the nomination of businessman Alfonso Yuchengco as ambassador to Germany is void as there is no Commission on Appointments to act on it in the remaining 92 days of the Arroyo administration. “It is a useless nomination to a nonexistent body.

By MELVIN PURZUELO Green Forum-Western Visayas ILOILO CITY.—Thousands of households, churches, institutions and business establishments switched off their lights and appliances to take part in Earth Hour last night, causing a nine-megawatt drop in power consumption on Panay Island. But civil society groups urged Ilonggo officials to “walk their talk” in fighting global warming by

By ELLEN TORDESILLAS LOCAL candidates along with the Commission on Elections, the Church, and civil society groups signed on March 24 a covenant for peaceful elections in Sipalay, Negros Occidental, one of Western Visayas’ election hotspots. Of the mayoral candidates, however, only detained former Marine Capt. and Independent candidate Gary Alejano showed up, escorted by

By YVONNE T. CHUA ENVELOPES come and go at the Social Action Center of the Diocese of Masbate. But the one awaiting Fr. Leo Casas, the center’s director, at his office the night of March 9 was different. At first, Casas thought it held a donation belatedly being made to Walk for Hope, Walk for

By LUZ RIMBAN A MULTISECTORAL election watchdog group has warned that the campaign for local positions, which starts today, could signal heightened violence because, it said, the automated election system is expected to limit opportunities for politicians to cheat. “Because the system is new and limits human intervention, some candidates will have more difficulty cheating,”

BY ARTHA KIRA PAREDES TWO farm helpers were arrested in Bangued, Abra on Tuesday by a group of 10 men led by a mayor and a police officer on suspicion that they were “imported goons” of Bangued Mayor Dominic Valera. Valera immediately denied the allegations even as Lagayan Mayor Jendricks Luna and PO3 Benedict Bobias, who

By FRANKLIN Q. DE GUZMAN Archdiocesan Social Action Apostolate Lingayen-Dagupan DAGUPAN CITY.—Three days before the start of the campaign period for local positions, some 50 political candidates in Pangasinan signed on Tuesday a covenant to ensure an “orderly, clean, honest, accurate, meaningful and peaceful (OCHAMP)” elections in May. Among those who signed the covenant was

By ELLEN TORDESILLAS A DEFENSE undersecretary who was investigating two cases of irregularities involving high-ranking defense officials was peremptorily dismissed two weeks ago. Retired Vice Admiral Ariston V. Delos Reyes, undersecretary for internal affairs in the Department of National Defense, sent his colleagues in the military an email in which he relates the unceremonious termination

VARIOUS civil society organizations staged a rally on Padre Faura in Manila yesterday to protest the Supreme Court decision allowing President Gloria Arroyo to appoint a new Chief Justice during the election campaign period. The High Tribunal had voted 9-3 to give the president the power to appoint, saying the constitutional provision barring the president

By CAROLYN ARGUILLAS MindaNews DAVAO CITY.— The “all out peace” and “primacy of the peace process” policy statements notwithstanding,  President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo ends her nine-year presidency with peace as elusive as it was under predecessor Joseph Estrada, the man who declared “all out war” against the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF)  on March 21, 2000.

By DANNY SABINO GENERAL SANTOS CITY—At least three areas in Central Mindanao will be free from guns, goons and gold this May elections, as long as candidates who pledged to do so honor their promise. About a hundred officials vying for elective positions in South Cotabato, Sarangani and General Santos City signed a peace covenant

By ELLEN TORDESILLAS INDEPENDENT presidential candidate Ma. Ana Consuelo “Jamby” Madrigal said Tuesday she will leave the country if Nacionalista  Party presidential candidate Manuel “Manny” Villar wins. “If Villar wins, I will emigrate for a few years,” she told  TV host Pia Hontiveros at the start of  ANC’s Strictly Politics’ miting de avance series. She

By LUZ RIMBAN TWO presidential candidates said they were fit to run the country despite some health problems. Bagumbayan Party candidate Richard Gordon said his blood pressure was normal although he is a little overweight from overeating. Administration candidate Gilbert Teodoro said he was taking maintenance medicine for hypertension and high blood sugar, and he

REP. Juan Miguel “Mikey” Arroyo of the second district of  Pampanga gave up his re-election bid in favor of his mother, President Gloria Arroyo, who has made an unprecedented move of an outgoing president  running for a  congressional seat. But it doesn’t mean Mikey will be out of the House of Representatives. It has been

By ARTHA KIRA PAREDES TWO people were wounded in an ambush in Abra early morning yesterday, one of them a political supporter of Bangued Mayor Dominic Valera. Robert Villastique, 38, and his live-in partner, Ofelia Garcia, 40, were on board a motorcycle when they were shot at in Sitio Sukib, Barangay Lubong in Bangued around 8:30

By ELLEN TORDESILLAS WHEN Filipino boxing hero Manny Pacquiao faces Joshua Clottey of Ghana in the ring on Sunday (Saturday in the U.S.) in Texas to defend his welterweight crown, the Ampatuan clan won’t be in the audience at the  Dallas Cowboys stadium to cheer him like in his past fights. Twelve prominent members of

By ELLEN TORDESILLAS EVEN in detention, Mayor Andal Ampatuan Jr. of Datu Unsay town in Maguindanao continues to issue orders to kill those he suspects would expose his role in the Nov. 23 massacre, a former hitman of the Ampatuans revealed Tuesday. In an interview with reporters, “Jesse” (not his real name) said around four

Jesse (not his real name), a trusted henchman of the Ampatuans, narrates his role in the Nov. 23 massacre and subsequent coverup in the following account: I DID not have any opportunity to study. My family was poor and my father farmed land that was not his. I only reached grade one. I could neither