Archive - News

JOURNALIST and VERA Files trustee Ellen Tordesillas announced  on April 12 the launch of a new award to honor the best student work on road safety issues. The Chit Estella Road Safety Journalism Award, named in honor of journalist Lourdes “Chit” Estella-Simbulan, will be given next year as a special category in the Philippine Journalism Research

    By ELLEN T. TORDESILLAS NOW that more and more persons with credibility (among them Sen. Antonio Trillanes IV during the vice-presidential debate and much earlier former senator and now senatorial candidate Panfilo “Ping” Lacson) are questioning the sanity of his claim that he can rid the country of criminals, drug dealers and corrupt

BY PURPLE ROMERO TWO weeks before the violent encounter between the police and the farmers in Kidapawan happened, Cotabato Gov.Emmylou Taliño-Mendoza delivered her State of the Province Address where she proudly said that the province is “surviving the drought” brought by El Niño. Local daily Sunstar reported that Mendoza described 2016 as a “breakthrough year”

      By ELLEN T. TORDESILLAS  DAVAO City Mayor Rodrigo Duterte’s proposed solution to the South China territorial conflict would make thrilling action-packed movie scene. In a speech before travel executives at the MOA-SMX last Friday (and in all his rally speches) Duterte said, “I will ask the Navy to bring me to the

THE disability sector breathed a sigh of relief when news broke in late March that President Benigno Simeon Aquino III had finally signed into law the bill exempting persons with disabilities (PWDs) from the value-added tax (VAT). For advocates, the enactment of Republic Act 10754 had been one nerve-wracking wait. Congress had already passed the

By ELLEN T. TORDESILLAS DO we still have a President? More than 20 Filipinos died Saturday in a clash between government forces and the terrorist group Abu Sayaf in Barangay Baguindan Tipo-Tipo in Basilan. And there’s not a word from the commander-in-chief of the   country’s Armed Forces. As I was writing this piece at 5

   (Lumabas itong kolum sa Abante: www.abante.com.ph)  Ni ELLEN T.TORDESILLAS KAYA si Davao City Mayor Rodrigo Duterte ay mura ng mura dahil gustong-gusto yan ng mga tagahanga niya. Mas malutong ang “Putang Ina” mas malakas ang palakpak. Nang sinundan namin ang kanyang rally noong Biyernes sa Parañaque, Las Piñas at Muntinlupa, nabingi ako sa santambak

By MARIA FEONA IMPERIAL VOTING by almost 1.38 million registered overseas Filipinos starts on Saturday, but the Department of Foreign Affairs has not deployed vote-counting machines (VCMs) to several countries because they still have to be reconfigured to print vote receipts. Last-minute adjustments being done on the VCMs to comply with the Supreme Court’s order

    By ELLEN T. TORDESILLAS   CHINA has started the operations of a lighthouse in Subi Reef, The Chinese news agency Xinhua reported Tuesday. Xinhua said the 55-meter high lighthouse contains technology to monitor passing ships. The Philippines should be very concerned. Subi Reef is the nearest China- occupied feature in the disputed Spratlys

Thanks to KilaBalita for the above video and photo below. By ELLEN T. TORDESILLAS THIS Governor Emmylou Talino-Mendoza of Cotabato is really something. I saw her on TV being interviewed on the bloody dispersal of the farmers rally in Kidapawan where at least two people died and many were injured and she expressed no sympathy.

By MARIA FEONA IMPERIAL IF you’re a government employee or a barangay official, be careful what you post on social media. The Commission on Elections and the Civil Service Commission (CSC), in a joint circular, have widened the scope of electioneering and partisan political activity to include ground rules on social media use. While they

                           By ELLEN T. TORDESILLAS WHEN it was reported that voters could cast their votes in shopping malls this coming elections,  I thought it was a good idea. It’s like going to mass in a mall and proceed to the grocery and shopping

By DANIEL ABUNALES Faith, not her real name, was an easy target. Only 17 years old, she was already living by herself in another city, working to earn enough for herself to get by and still provide for her family back in the province. Her monthly wage at a fastfood chain was P900, although some

BY ELLEN T. TORDESILLAS THE law signed by President Aquino March 23 exempting persons with disabilities from the value-added tax is a whiff of balm in the current toxic (Philippines as money laundering center of the $81 million bank heist and the negative vibes of the election campaign) atmosphere. The law, Republic Act No. 10754,

PRESIDENT Benigno Simeon Aquino III has signed into law the bill exempting persons with disabilities (PWDs) from the value-added tax (VAT). “According to PLLO (Presidential Legislative Liaison Office) Undersecretary Bernardito Sayo, President Aquino signed Republic Act No. 10754 last March 23,” said Presidential Communications Operations Office Secretary Herminio Coloma Jr. in a text message to

By ELLEN T. TORDESILLAS IT was almost midnight when Sen. Grace Poe made it to retired Col. Ariel Querubin’s birthday at the Clubhouse at Camp Aguinaldo last Monday. But she looked happy and energized. She told the remaining few guests that she came from the proclamation rally of former President Joseph Estrada, who is running

Ask average Filipinos what the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) is, and most would give answers that vary from vague to downright wrong. They confuse ASEAN with “Asia,” even APEC or the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation, and hardly know its significance. ASEAN is turning 50 next year, but experts interviewed for this video feature say

By MARIA FEONA IMPERIAL DESPITE getting the high court’s nod to run as president, Senator Grace Poe continues to be hounded by issues on her citizenship. This was evident as she lost her cool Sunday, when her allegiance, particularly her supposed renouncement of her Filipino citizenship, was questioned by Vice President Jejomar Binay during the

  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