Archive - Top Stories

By MIKHA FLORES THREE weeks to go to the May 13 polls, the Commission on Elections is starting to receive reports of vote-buying by candidates. Elections Commissioner Grace Padaca said Monday she has received reports that rice and grocery items were being doled out by politicians in her hometown in Isabela but she declined to

By MARK PERE MADRONA A group of music industry stakeholders are appealing to candidates to obtain the necessary permits before using local or foreign songs in their campaign activities, warning that they can be held liable for violating the country’s existing copyright law. Filipino Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers (FILSCAP) president Noel Cabangon said

By ARTHA KIRA PAREDES COTABATO City — The Department of Education in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao is organizing teams of teachers to deal with threats of violence on Election Day, in what is believed to be the first measure of its kind to protect the election frontliners. The agency launched today the DepEd-ARMM

By ARTHA KIRA PAREDES COTABATO City— Social Studies teacher Abunawas Solaiman clearly remembers the 2004 elections because, he said, it was the only time he felt safe serving as a member of the Board of Election Inspectors. He was then assigned at precinct 21-A in Barangay Katbo, Matanog in Maguindanao, serving alongside a policeman and a marine

  By Ellen Tordesillas Some are concerned that with the lifting by the Supreme Court of the airtime limits on political advertisements, we would be bombarded with all those propaganda in the next 30 days. Less-moneyed candidates are worried that they would be drowned by those with money to burn. Independent senatorial candidate Teddy  Casiño

By CHERRY JOY VENILES A decade after Overseas Absentee Voting for Filipinos residing abroad was signed into law, many remain skeptical regarding the practicality and value of mounting a campaign to bring in the overseas Filipino vote. But with more than 10 million Filipinos overseas in 200 countries and $23 billion in remittances for 2012 alone,

By MIKHA FLORES THE Commission of Elections’ months-long negotiations for the release of the source code for the automated machines to be used in the May 13 elections have come to naught. “Masamang-masama ang loob ko (I really feel bad about it)…I’ve wasted my time negotiating since November. Pinaghirapan ko ito. Tapos wala rin palang mangyayari (I gave

JOSEPH Victor Ejercito-Estrada of the United Nationalist Alliance leads senatorial candidates in poster violations after almost two months of campaigning. The Commission on Elections’ legal department has sent eight notices to Estrada asking him to remove campaign materials found in places not designated as common poster areas. The other senatorial candidates with the most number

  By ELLEN TORDESILLAS  PRESIDENT Aquino is being consistent when he said that the government will not be filing a diplomatic protest against China for the intrusion of a fishing vessel that got stuck in Tubbataha Reef in Sulu Sea, 150 kilometers southeast of Puerto Princesa City in Palawan. After all, he didn’t also protest

  By ERIN EMOCLING Photos from GREENPEACE PHILIPPINES GREEN superheroes Ben 10, The Green Lantern, and The Hulk are joining the Philippine election campaign. No, 10-year old Benwill not use his mysterious alien weapon, Omnitrix, for either Team PNoy or United Nationalist Alliance senatorial candidates. But  who knows if Green Lantern would  use the ring

Text by MIKHA FLORES Photos and video by VINCENT GO PROGRESSIVE party-lists have urged the Commission on Elections to ask the Supreme Court to reconsider its latest party-list decision which effectively opens the system to major political parties and non-marginalized groups. In a press statement, Makabayang Koalisyon ng Mamamayan (Makabayan) urged the Comelec to appeal

By MIKHA FLORES FOR the past 12 years, the Commission on Elections was guided by a Supreme Court decision describing the party-list system as a “social justice tool”.  The system was designed not just to give more laws for the protection of marginalized groups but to enable them to become lawmakers themselves. But with the