Archive - News

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

By JAKE SORIANO OF the 54 million Filipinos registered to vote in the upcoming presidential elections, 318,013 have disabilities. The interactive map below shows the 10 provinces in the Philippines with the most number of registered voters with disabilities.

By MARIA FEONA IMPERIAL AFTER months of debate, the Commission on Elections has finally resolved to activate the on-screen verification (OSV) feature of vote-counting machines (VCMs) for the May 9 elections. Voters will be allowed a maximum of 15 seconds to verify whether or not their choices are accurately read by the VCMs. If there

THERE are about 54 million voters registered for this year’s presidential elections. Who are they? Where are they?

By LUIS T. CRUZ AT the beginning of this year, an important milestone began in Southeast Asia with the inauguration of the ASEAN Community. What does ASEAN Community mean to the lives of ordinary Filipinos aside from no longer getting a visa when going as tourists to other Asean countries namely Brunei Darussalam, Cambodia, Indonesia,

By MARIA FEONA IMPERIAL THE Commission on Elections has tripled the number of random manual audit (RMA) precincts compared to previous elections to boost public confidence on the accuracy of results, Commissioner Luie Tito Guia said Tuesday. From 234 precincts in 2013, a total of 715 precincts will be employed for the RMA this May,

EVEN if the high court decides that independent bet Sen. Grace Poe is disqualified from running for president, her name will stay on the official ballot for the 2016 polls, Commission on Elections Chair Andres Bautista said Tuesday. With nearly 10.5 million or one-fourth of the total number of ballots printed, Bautista said the poll

By MARIA FEONA IMPERIAL IF it violates certain provisions of the fair elections law, the Commission on Elections may consider banning broadcast networks from airing the upcoming boxing match of senatorial aspirant Sarangani Rep. Manny Pacquiao. Comelec Chair Andres Bautista said in a press conference Tuesday it is possible to do so since the poll

By MARIA FEONA IMPERIAL A former lawmaker is facing criticism for his insensitive remarks on the alleged special treatment given to persons with disabilities (PWDs) in verifying their votes through the voice prompt feature of vote counting machines (VCMs). Former Biliran representative Glenn Chong questioned the Commission on Elections (Comelec) for allowing people with visual

     By ELLEN T. TORDESILLAS GOING  the rounds in Facebook is a post by Candy Chan in Astig.Ph about a vehicle by a mayor that was parked in a slot reserved for Persons with Disabilities at Bay 4 of NAIA3. When the security guard called the attention of the man who came out of