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  TACLOBAN, Leyte–Residents of this city and nearby towns joined an exodus toward safety Wednesday, after hearing of reports of an alleged gunfight between soldiers and leftist guerillas, who were supposed to have held hostage food convoys. People scampered away from Alang-alang town where an alleged gunfight involving New People’s Army guerillas supposedly took place.

By DARLENE CAY COMMISSION on Elections Chairman SixtoBrillantes Jr. on Wednesday reminded public school teachers who refused to serve as members of the Board of Election Tellers (BETs) of their civic duty. “Ayaw naman nating ipilit (We do not want to impose). It’s not really in a sense, compulsory. But we’re always appealing to the civic-mindedness

By VINCE NONATO THE Commission on Audit should scrutinize the funds of barangays as closely as it has been looking into the “pork barrel” of senators and congressmen to ensure that elected barangay officials are not making money out of their positions, Interior Secretary Manuel “Mar” Roxas II said Tuesday. In a press briefing, Roxas

Text by MARK PERE MADRONA Photos by MARIO IGNACIO IV LIPA CITY, Batangas—Reymundo Chica and his wife Melanie joined millions of Filipinos as they elected their referred bets in Monday’s barangay elections. With their two children Reymiel and Michelle, aged 10 and 5, in tow, the visually impaired couple went straight to their assigned voting precinct

By DARLENE CAY (UPDATED) THE Commission on Elections decided on Monday to suspend the proclamation of winners in areas where petitions have been filed against candidates who are considered nuisance, are unregistered voters or have been convicted. Chairman Sixto Brillantes Jr. said the move was needed because the poll body lacks time to resolve all

By VICENTE ALEJANDRO TACLOBAN CITY—More than 2.6 million voters in Eastern Visayas are expected to turn out in Monday’s barangays elections amid the killing of a candidate and allegations of vote buying over the weekend. Chief Supt. Elmer C. Soria, Eastern Visayas police director, however, said he remains hopeful that the nationwide elections to elect

By VERA Files COTABATO CITY— Candidates for barangay elections in this city spent the last day of the campaign period engaging in partisan activity that violated the Omnibus Election Code, but no one stopped them or even called them to task for their offense.

By ARTHA KIRA PAREDES COTABATO CITY— Election officers in Maguindanao say priority and fast lanes will be set aside for persons with disabilities, senior citizens and pregnant women as part of government’s move to make polling places “accessible” on election day on Monday. But the special lanes aren’t enough, they are the first to admit,

By DEXTER CABALZA and MELISSA LUZ LOPEZ MORE than half of recorded deaths from rido or clan wars in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) since 1993 were politically motivated, according to the Regional Reconciliation and Unification Commission (RRUC).

By ARTHA KIRA PAREDES Photo and Video by AMIEL MARK CAGAYAN COTABATO CITY— The candidates for barangay polls arrived at the same time and wore political colors and party uniforms, revealing the partisan nature of village elections.

By MELISSA LUZ LOPEZ POLL watchdog Citizens Coalition for ARMM Electoral Reforms Inc (C-CARE) says one in every three barangays in Basilan are potential areas of concern in Monday’s elections and recommends an increase in the number of security personnel in those villages. C-CARE says unstable peace and order situations have been observed in 92

By VINCE NONATO THE Commission on Elections has finally signed the P100 million check to fund the honoraria and other expenses of police and army deputies tasked to maintain peace and order and carry out other election-related duties, Chairman Sixto Brillantes Jr. announced Friday. The funds, P60 million of which will go to the Philippine

IT’S all systems go for the barangay polls. Commission on Elections Chairman Sixto Brillantes Jr on Friday announced that the electoral body is ready to conduct successful elections, and that all materials for October 28 have been deployed. “We’ve completed the preparations…we should be winding up on the final deployment,” he said. Deployment of materials

By VICENTE ALEJANDRO TACLOBAN CITY – Thousands of policemen have been deployed to different parts of Eastern Visayas to help secure the barangay elections on Monday. This week alone, some 3,980 policemen were sent to man the Police Assistance Desks (PADs) in clustered voting centers throughout the region. Earlier, more than 900 cops were deployed to

A word of advice from Commission on Elections spokesman James Jimenez: guard against vote-buying but exercise prudence when documenting such acts. The public was helpful in documenting vote-buying and other violations in the May elections and in Monday’s barangay polls, citizens are again expected to be vigilant. But the poll official warns: take it easy with

THE concrete blocks in Bajo de Masinloc, which Philippine defense and military officials last month accused China of putting there, may have actually been placed by the United States Navy decades ago, military sources said. A military investigation found that the concrete slabs were covered by algae, an indication that they had been in the area

By VINCE NONATO AS in previous elections, police and military personnel will serve as election tellers in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) in Monday’s barangay polls, in place of teachers who have refused to render service. Teachers across the country normally serve as election tellers but fearing for their safety, many in the

By DARLENE CAY THE Liga ng mga Barangay sa Pilipinas on Wednesday filed a motion for reconsideration after a local court denied its petition to declare as illegal the Commission on Elections’ directive requiring barangays to help fund the October 28 polls. The group, in its petition before the Manila Regional Trial Court, says the