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By MICHAEL A. BENGWAYAN BAGUIO CITY—“No mountain is too high, no trouble too difficult to overcome…” This saying might as well describe the  resumption of  series of protest actions to be  staged by environmentalists and residents against SM City Baguio’s plan to remove more than a hundred pine trees on Luneta Hill to make way for

By ACE ESMERALDA MANY things don’t fit in the statements of the police on the Jan. 26 Megamall robbery. As of this writing, the Mandaluyong police have claimed to have “identified” two of the six suspects in the robbery. But in reality, they don’t have the two suspects’ names and addresses yet. What they have

By JONATHAN DE SANTOS EMPLOYEES of the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) have filed a graft case against an official of the DAR’s Bids and Awards Committee for awarding engineering firm F.F. Cruz and Co. a contract to survey Hacienda Luisita which they said was overpriced. F.F. Cruz was to survey a portion of Hacienda

By  ROMEL R. BAGARES JUST as pundits have predicted, China  soon announced it is not taking part in the arbitration proceedings initiated by the Philippines over the two countries’ territorial dispute in the West Philippine Sea (South China Sea for the Chinese). So, what happens next – does this mean an abrupt end to the

  By LAURO L.BAJA, JR. THE Philippines has finally brought to the compulsory dispute mechanism of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS)  its conflict with China over some areas in the West Philippine Sea. Finally, because many believe that this action should have been done before 25 August 2006, when

By CHARMAINE DEOGRACIAS THE campaign to raise autism awareness in the country is as old as my son Giancarlo Miguel, he is now 17. From that time that my kid was taunted in a theme park in Laguna for being special and cannot patiently queue like everyone else, back when he was 6, my resolve

By JONATHAN DE SANTOS ACTIVISTS troop to the Supreme Court tomorrow, the second time they will do so this month, to oppose the Cybercrime Prevention Act of 2012. But another group has been working quietly towards much the same goal: a repeal of the law that critics say will violate the freedoms of speech and

Text and photos by ELIZABETH LOLARGA FORMER University of the Philippines Collegian Editor Ericson “Eric” Acosta, political prisoner under the democratically elected Aquino administration, flew back safely to Manila early Friday after close to two years of detention at a Samar sub-provincial jail. He was immediately taken to the National Kidney Institute for renal treatment

Text and photos by ELIZABETH LOLARGA CALBAYOG CITY, Samar—Political prisoner Ericson “Eric” Acosta, who had long stopped counting the days he had spent in jail at this city’s sub-provincial jail in Western Samar, was sprung an unanticipated pre-Valentine gift on Thursday: The court allowed the poet-composer and former Philippine Collegian editor to leave jail on

Text by MIKHA FLORES Photos by MARIO IGNACIO IV THE recently signed Cybercrime Law may be unconstitutional since it adopted the libel provision of the Revised Penal Code (RPC) which may no longer be in conformance with Supreme Court decisions and international law when the Philippine government signed and ratified the International Covenant on Civil

By ACE ESMERALDA THE election period in the Philippines began Sunday and signalled the start of a nationwide total gun ban expected to minimize election-related offenses, particularly gun-related violence among political groups and clans. For many, the gun ban brings some relief, especially since the country enters this period with heightened fear of gun-related violence.

Text and photos by JONATHAN DE SANTOS CIVIL society groups say President Benigno Aquino III has been unable to narrow the gap between rich and poor in the country, and that he has failed to wield agrarian reform to close that gap. Aquino’s critics came out recently to urge him to speed up the distribution