Archive - News

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