Archive - News

By MIKHA FLORES UNLESS you want to spend the next six to 12 years in prison, beware of fake gun ban exemption certifications. Commission on Elections Commissioner Elias Yusoph has cautioned the public of fraudulent gun ban exemption certifications that are currently circulating. Yusoph, Chair of the 2013 Committee on the Ban on Firearms and

By MIKHA FLORES A candidate may invoke his right to reply over a news report published or aired against him, but he may not be given a chance to reply, a Commission on Elections official said. Comelec spokesperson James Jimenez said the right to reply, although provided for in the Fair Elections Act and its

By ELLEN TORDESILLAS
THE Philippine government decided Tuesday to ask the United Nations arbitration tribunal to declare as illegal China’s nine-dash line map that covers a large part of country’s territory in the South China Sea including the disputed Spratlys group of islands and Bajo de Masinloc.

By MIKHA FLORES TELEVISION and radio networks need not secure a permit from the Commission on Elections for candidates to appear in their programs. Chairman Sixto Brillantes Jr. said Tuesday Comelec plans to come out with a resolution clarifying a provision in the Fair Elections Act requiring broadcast stations or entities to secure an approval

THE permanent stationing of three of its ships in Bajo de Masinloc is part of China’s “creeping invasion” of disputed territories in the South China Sea, a high-ranking Philippine government official said.

By MIKHA FLORES AN official of the Armed Forces of the Philippines wants the Commission on Elections to allow police or military escorts for candidates in the Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao. Lt. Gen. Rey Ardo, commanding general of the Western Mindanao Command (Wesmincom), asked Comelec to reconsider a provision allowing only incumbent governors and

(First of two parts) THE Philippines is at a loss over China’s declaration its ships will stay permanently in Bajo de Masinloc, a declaration some experts say could lead to the Philippines losing 38 percent of its territorial waters. Bajo de Masinloc, a triangular-shaped coral reef formation that has several rocks encircling a lagoon, is

By MIKHA FLORES MORE than 238,000 Overseas Absentee Voters (OAV) will be removed from the voters’ list after failing to vote in the last two elections. Commission on Elections Chairman Sixto Brillantes Jr. said Friday only 29 of the 238,557 OAVs who were “deactivated” from the list manifested their intent to vote in 2013. The

By MIKHA FLORES WHEN the Commission on Elections awarded Smartmatic the contract to supply compact flash (CF) Cards for the coming May elections, it did not consider the technical glitches in 2010 that nearly botched the first nationwide automated elections. Lawyer Helen Aguila-Flores, chairperson of the Special Bids and Awards Committee (SBAC), said Thursday the

CONVICTED child rapist Romeo Jalosjos can’t run for mayor of Zamboanga City this May.  Neither can his brother Dominador, who had been convicted of robbery, vie for the governorship of Zamboanga del Sur. The Commission on Elections on Tuesday ordered the cancellation of the certificates of candidacy of the siblings after the Supreme Court earlier

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

A radio broadcaster who spent two years in jail for libel is one of several journalists and human rights advocates who have asked the Supreme Court to declare unconstitutional the government’s controversial new law, the Cybercrime Prevention Act of 2012.

SEN. Antonio Trillanes IV on Wednesday accused Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile of being a “GMA lackey” for supposedly rushing a bill that would cut up Camarines Sur province as a favor to former president Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo.