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By ARTHA KIRA PAREDES
BANGUED, Abra.—Five years ago today, the then highest-ranking politician of Abra province was shot dead outside a church in Quezon City in broad daylight, signaling the fall of one of Abra’s most prominent families and the rise of other political dynasties. The killing also ushered in a period of intensified violence that has made the province one of the country’s most dangerous places, its capital Bangued the so-called “murder capital of the north.”

By YVONNE T. CHUA
IF things go as planned, the Department of Education will start delivering this month 61.4 million copies of textbooks and teachers’ manuals worth P2.58 billion to public elementary and high schools nationwide. But civil society watchdogs as well as several former and current education officials say about half the books, or just over 30 million copies valued at P1.317 billion, were procured by direct contracting, a mode they said violates Republic Act No. 9184 or the Government Procurement Reform Act. The law sets competitive or public bidding as the rule for all state procurements and allows direct contracting only in “highly exceptional cases.”

By HOMER TEODORO
CENTRAL LUZON TV
HACIENDA LUISITA, TARLAC CITY--Farmers of Hacienda Luisita were jubilant when they heard from their leaders in Metro Manila Thursday morning that the Supreme Court has junked the Stock Distribution Option and ordered the Hacienda Luisita, Incorporated to distribute the more than 6,000 hectares of land to the more than 5,000 farmers of the sugarcane plantation that belongs to the family of President Aquino.

By ELLEN TORDESILLAS
FORMER President Gloria Arroyo is now under arrest for the unbailable crime of electoral sabotage. The warrant of arrest, issued by Judge Jesus Mupas of the Pasay City Regional Trial Court, was served at 6:30 p.m. Friday by members of the Philippine National Police seven hours after the Commission on Elections filed electoral sabotage charges in connection with the 2007 elections against Arroyo, former Maguindanao governor Andal Ampatuan Sr. and former Comelec election supervisor Lintang Bedol before the Pasay City RTC.

By MARK PERE MADRONA
A HAND-PAINTED sign on the gate of the 2.5-hectare assembly plant of the iconic Sarao Motors Inc. (SMI) in Pulanglupa, Las Pinas City welcomes both tourists and customers.

A QUEZON City regional trial court on Wednesday ordered the arrest of bus driver Daniel Espinosa charged in the death of journalism professor and VERA Files trustee Lourdes “Chit” Estella Simbulan after he was a no show at his arraignment.

By ELIZABETH LOLARGA
WHILE a bloody encounter was playing out on a field in Basilan, journalist Cathy Babao Guballa was in the midst of preparing what Lorna Kalaw Tirol, a veteran editor, calls a "landmark book."

By LUZ RIMBAN and YVONNE T. CHUA
THE BUREAU of Internal Revenue has found the Caucus of Development NGO Networks (Code-NGO) liable to pay close to P5 billion in taxes for its purchase of the so-called PEACe Bonds 10 years ago.

By MEDIA SOLUTIONS
LEGASPI CITY—The Commission on Human Rights regional office here is set to form a task group that will reopen the investigation of the killing of a religious pastor more than four years ago.

FORMER First Son and incumbent party-list congressman Juan Miguel “Mikey” Arroyo and his wife Angela Montenegro will be charged with tax evasion, after the Department of Justice found probable cause to sue them.

A STRONG civil society and a vigilant press have been the country’s most effective weapons against extrajudicial killings, in the face of government’s failure to both prevent and prosecute such cases, a human rights lawyer said recently.

LEADERS of indigenous communities in Bukidnon have refused to engage in any discussion over the planned construction of the Pulangui V Hydroelectric Project (HEP), until dam proponents submit a cultural impact assessment that will detail the damage the dam will cause the tribes.