Archive - News

By MIKHA FLORES PRESIDENT Aquino has asked the Commission on Elections to exempt him from the gun ban that takes effect nationwide when the election period starts on Sunday, a Comelec official said Thursday. Elections Commissioner Elias Yusoph said Aquino, a known gun enthusiast, filed for a personal exemption Thursday morning at his office. The

By MIKHA FLORES COMMISSION on Elections Chairman Sixto Brillantes Jr. is proposing that the two new commissioners President Aquino will soon appoint be named “consultants” first before their formal appointment to allow them to already participate in the poll body’s deliberations. “The President can announce who will be appointed so that by Feb. 2 or

By MIKHA FLORES THE Commission on Elections is moving the ballot configuration originally set on Friday to its “deadliest deadline,” Comelec Chairman Sixto Brillantes said Wednesday. During the configuration, Comelec will finalize the ballot face in both the national and local elections. The front face will include all elective positions in the national level: senators

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