Archive - News

By MIKHA FLORES THE  Commission on Elections has asked a Laguna court to let it take over a warehouse storing poll automation machines for the 2013 elections. Elections Commissioner Christian Robert Lim said Comelec filed two suits in a Biñan court seeking to expropriate the warehouse in Cabuyao, Laguna that houses the 82,000 Precinct Count

By MIKHA FLORES CABANATUAN City would have to wait until after the May 13 elections to get residents to vote on a proposal to turn it from a component city of Nueva Ecija province into a highly urbanized city (HUC). The Commission on Elections on Tuesday again denied the city’s motion for reconsideration to schedule

By MIKHA FLORES THE Commission on Elections stands to save more than P200 million worth of taxpayers’ money after the Presidential Electoral Tribunal (PET) has allowed it to re-use ballot boxes used in 2010. In a resolution dated Dec. 4, the PET approved a petition filed by Comelec Law Department Director Esmeralda Amora-Ladra to use the

By MYLAH REYES ROQUE THE Commission on Human Rights (CHR) is recommending the filing of criminal and administrative charges against soldiers involved in the shooting of botanist Leonard Co and two others, based on findings contrary to initial reports released by a Department of Justice (DOJ) panel. CHR chairperson Loreta Ann Rosales announced her recommendation

  By EIMOR P. SANTOS IN death, Vera Files trustee and journalism professor Lourdes “Chit” Estella Simbulan continues to champion human rights campaign in the country. The 1st Chit Estella Journalism Awards honored the best journalistic reports on human rights, Dec. 7. This is in line with the celebration of the National Human Rights Consciousness

  President Benigno S. Aquino III is expected to name Foreign Affairs Undersecretary for Policy Erlinda Basilio as ambassador to China, reliable sources at the Department of Foreign Affairs said. Malacanang said last Friday the President would announce Monday the new ambassador to China who will replace Sonia Brady,71, who suffered a stroke in Beijing

By JONATHAN P. DE SANTOS
SEN. Edgardo Angara took the Senate floor on Wednesday to answer what he called malicious and vicious allegations against the Aurora Pacific Economic Zone and Freeport Authority (APECO), which he helped create.

THE Canada Fund for Local Initiatives (CFLI) recently awarded financial grants to 11 projects that seek to advance democracy, ensure security and stability, and stimulate sustainable economic growth. VERA Files is among the 11 recipients of the competitive small grants program.

THE advocacy group Centerlaw Philippines launched Friday an electronic resource of public documents relating to the trial of the Ampatuans and their accomplices for the mass murder of 58 people, 32 of them journalists, in Ampatuan, Maguindanao exactly three years ago.

By HAZEL P. VILLA
ILOILO CITY--A magnitude 5.8 earthquake in Negros Occidental triggered tremors here, separated by sea some 74 kilometers away, early Wednesday afternoon.

By ELLEN TORDESILLAS
STRANGE things are going on at the National Printing Office which has been given the job to bid out P780 million contract to supply and print 55 million ballots for the May 2013 elections.

By KHRYSTA IMPERIAL RARA
ENVIRONMENTAL and animal welfare groups seeking to rehabilitate and return 25 dolphins to the Solomon Islands say they will appeal the court decision allowing the re-exportation of the animals to Singapore.

By KHRYSTA IMPERIAL RARA
ENVIRONMENT and animal welfare groups filed yesterday a petition against the Philippine government to prevent the issuance of a permit to re-export to Singapore 25 dolphins presently being kept and trained at the Ocean Adventure Park in Subic.

Text and Photos by VINCENT GO VARIOUS media groups, along with individual journalists, bloggers and press freedom advocates continue to challenge the constitutionality of the government's new Cybercrime Prevention Law.

The controversial Cybercrime Prevention Act of 2012 took effect today, October 3, the same day that media groups challenged it before the Supreme Court, and also the same day that hackers took down some government websites in what is thought to be another form of protest against the law. A group called Anonymous Philippines is

A radio broadcaster who spent two years in jail for libel is one of several journalists and human rights advocates who have asked the Supreme Court to declare unconstitutional the government’s controversial new law, the Cybercrime Prevention Act of 2012.

SEN. Antonio Trillanes IV on Wednesday accused Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile of being a “GMA lackey” for supposedly rushing a bill that would cut up Camarines Sur province as a favor to former president Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo.

INTERIOR Secretary Rico Puno resigned on Tuesday as interior and local government undersecretary amid allegations of his involvement in the purchase of assault rifles for the police's Special Action Force supposedly at an overprice and attempt to access documents of the late Secretary Jesse Robredo.

THE Embassy of Canada’s small-grants facility is accepting proposals for funding small development projects in the country. The Canada Fund for Local Initiatives (CFLI) will directly fund small projects of community groups, nongovernment organizations, people’s organizations and in exceptional cases, international NGOs, and government institutions that address governance, democracy, capacity building, economic and social development

By VINCENT GO ZAMBOANGA CITY—A local leader has condemned the twin explosions that shook this city on Thursday, saying perpetrators had no respect for a place of worship during the holy month of Ramadan.

By ELLEN TORDESILLAS
CONCERNED citizens are asking multinational cigarette company Philip Morris to fire one of its executives who was caught on video mauling a Metro Manila traffic enforcer.

“THIS is what we need to face China” was the recurring comment from visitors as they admired four types of automatic rifles displayed on a rack at a recent gun show held at SM Megamall.

Text and video by KARLOS MANLUPIG
DAVAO CITY— Rogelio Simbajon has labored in the mining tunnels in the gold rush community of Gumayan, a town in Compostela Valley, for more than 30 years. On Monday, he and about 400 other small-scale miners left the tunnels to participate in protests timed with President Benigno S. Aquino III’s third State of the Nation Address.

VERA Files, in cooperation with ABS-CBN News and Current Affairs and Unlimited Productions Inc., presents the documentary “Silang May Mga Kapansanan,” a special report on the program Krusada hosted by veteran broadcast journalist Karen Davila.