Archive - News

  By ELLEN T. TORDESILLAS FORMER Comelec Commissioner Gregorio Larrazabal, who is now consultant of the Nationalist People’s Coalition, said the Commission on Elections cannot postpone the May 9 elections as it is being floated now. He said there is only one option for Comelec: “To conduct automated elections on May 9, 2016.” Former Senator

  By ELLEN T. TORDESILLAS IT’S as simple as that. Former Senator Richard Gordon who is running again for the Senate slammed officials of the Commission on Elections for painting a doomsday scenario if they were to comply with the Supreme Court decision to have the election machines on May 9 issue receipts of the

  BY LUCIA P. TANGI ONE day at sea, Filipina Marine Engineer Monique Arrojado found herself alone with the Danish captain of an international cargo vessel she was deployed to. “There is something in you. I really like you,” the captain bluntly told Arrojado, then 22 and a fourth engineer, in his office. Arrojado was

By MARIA FEONA IMPERIAL IT is no joke to start over. Less than two months before the May 9 polls, the Commission on Elections has resorted to voicing a plea to the high court to rethink its demand of issuing vote receipts. Otherwise, there may be failure of elections, the Comelec said Friday. “There is a strong

By MARIA FEONA IMPERIAL AS the five presidential candidates tried to outsmart each other in the first PiliPinas Debates held in Cagayan de Oro last month, one community watching it on television or online simply couldn’t relate: the Filipino Deaf. The Commission on Elections and GMA News Inc., its media partner for the historic debate,

By JAKE SORIANO FOR a time during the presidency of Benigno Simeon Aquino III, it seemed peace in Mindanao was finally within grasp. On Oct. 5, 2012, the Government of the Philippines (GPH) and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) signed the Framework Agreement on the Bangsamoro (FAB). A crucial guiding document in the peace

    By ELLEN T. TORDESILLAS ​​IT was an obviously elated Grace Poe that came to the Liwasang Bonifacio to celebrate International Women’s Day organized by the militant women’s group, Gabriela, yesterday. She had just received word that the Supreme Court, voting 9-6, junked the disqualification decisions of the Commission on Elections on the issues

  By ELLEN T. TORDESILLAS WITH only three months left of his term, President Aquino appointed his cabinet secretary Jose Rene D. Almendras, 56, as foreign secretary. Press Secretary Herminio Coloma announced tonight that “President Aquino has appointed Jose Rene Almendras as ad interim Secretary of Foreign Affairs, according to Executive Secretary Paquito Ochoa Jr.

By MARIA FEONA IMPERIAL ELECTION timelines have been disrupted again as the Supreme Court (SC) ordered the Commission on Elections to issue vote receipts in the May 9 polls, two months before election day. With overseas voting preparations halfway done, the Comelec has to alter certain configurations of vote-counting machines (VCMs) and make adjustments in

By MARIA FEONA IMPERIAL ACTIVATION of the on-screen verification (OSV) feature of vote-counting machines (VCMs) does not guarantee a fraud-free elections, a poll watchdog said Monday. Vote buying and the use of military and paramilitary forces to coerce voters on election day are still possible even with safeguard features in the automated election system, Kontra

By MARIA FEONA IMPERIAL A boxing fight is not a political advertisement. This is what Sarangani representative and boxing champ Manny Pacquiao told the Commission on Elections Monday to defend  the airing of his upcoming match with American boxer Timothy Bradley on Philippine television. Pacquiao, through his lawyers Antonio Carlos Bautista and Romulo Macalintal, said the April

  By ELLEN T. TORDESILLAS THE Chinese have not occupied Jackson Atoll (Philippine name is Quirino and Wufang Jiao in Chinese)  in the Spratlys, as erroneously reported in Philippines media. Not yet. But the Chinese were there last December as related by the spokesman of the Chinese Foreign Ministry Hong Lei in his regular press