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 A screenshot showing a tampered headline of a VERA Files story on the Ebola virus published Aug. 4 in Yahoo Ph! is being circulated online. The fake headline in the screenshot reads “Ebola virus has killed 23 people in Manila” and was added to the original headline of writer Ellen Tordesillas’ story “Good hygiene—the weapon

By ELLEN T. TORDESILLAS WHILE everybody was trying to recover from the emotional performance of President Aquino in his 5th State-of-the-Nation address Monday night, pork barrel queen Janet Napoles was brought to Camp Bagong Diwa jail at the Bureau of Jail Management and Penology in Bicutan,Taguig. Reports said Napoles arrived at Bicutan from Fort Sto.

By JANE MAREN DASAL (Photos by Mario Ignacio IV and Mario Espinosa) As the rains poured on Monday, sentiments of discontent from the protesters also poured when President Benigno Simeon Aquino III delivered his fifth State of the Nation Address (SONA) at the House of Representatives. “If we were his ‘boss,’ then he’s fired,” 18-year-old

IN various offices of the Commission on Elections nationwide, the same story played out as the country marked Sunday the National Registration Day for Persons with Disabilities (PWDs): Only a handful showed up to register as voters, and in some places none at all. The low turnout was blamed on poor information dissemination by the poll

By JAKE SORIANO BONGAO, Tawi-Tawi – Inside a small room at the Tawi-Tawi Provincial Police Station, leaders of the local anti-trafficking task force had been trying to pry information out of five women who had just been intercepted by the police getting off a boat from Zamboanga City. The five, all of them new faces

[metaslider id=29231]   By YVONNE T. CHUA THE more than 30,000 classrooms the national government is building this schoolyear will look hardly any different from those constructed in recent years, especially to the untrained eye. But the classrooms of 2014 and thereafter will be different. They will sport a new design the Department of Education

  By OFELIA C. EMPIAN BAGUIO CITY—Two mummies from the Cordillera have found their way to Europe and regaining them would require a tedious process involving national and local agencies, and the assistance of UNESCO, says Engineer Orlando Abinion, a conservation consultant at the National Museum. One of the mummies is in a medical school

By JAKE SORIANO BONGAO, Tawi-Tawi—When authorities intercepted here 48 Filipinos believed to have been recruited by human trafficking syndicates for work in Malaysia, they thought they were doing the potential victims a favor. Little did they know the victims considered them villains. The Bongao Inter-agency Task force Against Trafficking in Persons (BIATFAT) rounded up the

By JOSEPH ARNEL DELIVERIO BONGAO, Tawi-Tawi—They were arrested by authorities for illegally working in Malaysia, and detained for months in cramped cells where they were fed only twice a day. Yet the four Filipino deportees said they would give up everything for a chance to go back, even if it meant going through the whole

By PATRICIA ISABEL GLORIA FACTORY worker Rodelio Naval was waiting in line for a check-up at the Philippine Orthopedic Center (POC) in Quezon City when he was told he could not use his PhilHealth Insurance membership to have his legs treated. Naval, who is from San Pedro Laguna and worked for Esycon Industrial Trading, was

By JOHNNA VILLAVIRAY GIOLAGON THE new military agreement between the Philippines and the United States will allow for the deployment of any number of American servicemen and assets to any point the local military allows. Defense Secretary Voltaire Gazmin and US Ambassador Philip Goldberg signed the Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement (EDCA) in a low-key ceremony

By APRIL ANNE BENJAMIN THE longest-serving political prisoner in the country is appealing for his release to President Barack Obama, who is scheduled to arrive in Manila on April 28. In his letter to the United States President, Juanito Itaas, who has been detained for more than two decades now in connection with the killing

By JAKE SORIANO BONGAO, Tawi-Tawi—Tawi-Tawi authorities are alarmed at the growing number of fishermen from the Visayas who end up here after being recruited by human trafficking syndicates to engage in dangerous compressor diving. The latest case involves 13 fishermen rescued from a fishing village here on March 15 by a team composed of the

By JAKE SORIANO BONGAO, Tawi-tawi—A team of Marines and policemen intercepted around noon Thursday 48 people, 12 of them minors, believed recruited by a human trafficking syndicate for work in Malaysia. The arrest constitutes what advocates called the biggest catch in the government’s anti-trafficking efforts here this year. Elements of the Philippine Marine Battalion Landing

Text and video by NECA REYES OFFICIALS of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) remembered the Jabidah Massacre by visiting Corregidor Island in Cavite where some 60 young Muslim men were killed 46 years ago. ARMM officials also built a Mindanao Garden of Peace in honor of the fallen Muslims, who had been recruited

By JOHNNA VILLAVIRAY GIOLAGON PHILIPPINE authorities will have limited access to areas American forces are to occupy within the country’s military camps under an agreement the Aquino government is entering with the United States. “It is safe to say that there will be language that will provide that the Philippine authorities would have access to the

By MITCH MEÑEZ Photos by LITTLE WING LUNA IT was a fine Saturday morning. A group of women gathered  at Plaza Salamanca on Taft Avenue, some carrying  musical instruments, others placards and signs. Instead of preparing lunch for the family or watching noontime shows, these women have decided to brave the hot sun and forego

UNIVERSITY of the Philippines journalism students hauled in the top prizes at the 2014 Philippine Journalism Research Conference (PJRC) at the University of the Philippines on Wednesday. Aiming to highlight commendable researches of journalism students, this year’s PJRC gave the Chit Estella Memorial Awards for Journalism Research to students with the most excellent work. UP