Archive - Vote 2013

By MIKHA FLORES THE good news is the source code for the Precinct Count Optical Scan (PCOS) machines will be finally available for review by interested groups and political parties. The bad news is any review will not be completed until after the May 13 elections. Commission on Elections Chair Sixto Brillantes Jr. said Monday

By MIKHA FLORES ELECTION watchdogs and civil society organizations filed a complaint against the Commission on Elections before an international human rights body on Friday for allegedly compromising the May 13 elections and violating their right to vote. A group of 33 individuals from civil society groups filed a 52-page complaint before the United Nations

By LUCILLE SODIPE CEBU City–Just like any brand of shampoo, diaper, energy drink or deodorant, candidates need to be properly ‘packaged’ to become sellable to the Filipino voters. With the help of image builders, they employ various marketing strategies to convince voters they are the best brand in the market. Political analyst Prospero De Vera

By JOHANNE MARGARETTE R. MACOB DAGUPAN City – Who’s the better man? Or who’s facing fewer charges? It’s a battle all the way to the top for Pangasinan gubernatorial candidates Amado Espino Jr and Hernani Braganza in their race to claim Urduja House, amid plunder charges filed against them. Just last week, both candidates were

By MELISSA LUZ LOPEZ CALOOCAN City -A sea of yellow bathed the Caloocan High School Auditorium. No, it was not a campaign rally for administration candidates. Rather, it was the signing of a manifesto of support for a 10-point agenda asserting the rights of persons with disabilities (PWDs). With the theme “Action! To Make the Right

By MIKHA FLORES AN irritated Commission on Elections Chairman Sixto Brillantes Jr. scolded citizens’ arm National Movement for Free Elections (NAMFREL) for publicly airing their concerns for the May 13 elections. Brillantes said NAMFREL, as an accredited citizens’ arm, should refrain from making public statements especially those that are critical of Comelec’s preparation for the midterm

By MIKHA FLORES THE Commission on Elections has promised improved random manual audit (RMA) system for the May 13 elections with “new rules and innovations” using lessons learned from the 2010 elections and the mock polls last February. Commissioner Christian Robert Lim, who is in charge of the manual audit, told VERA Files the RMA

By CLTV 36 SAN FERNANDO, Pampanga—The good news about the elections in Central Luzon is that only a tiny fraction of candidates running for public office in the May 13 elections comes from political families. The bad news is that Pampanga has the highest number of candidates for various positions who hail from those dynasties,

By VINCE NONATO TO this Baptist church in Quezon City, Paul Watser is what you may call a good Christian. He’s tall, he’s young, he reads the Bible, he votes. Watser is a character in a series of shorts depicting the story of an ordinary, church-going, apathetic college student. And for the first time last

LET this be a warning to voters. All may not turn out right on election day. Take the case of James Jimenez, the spokesman of the Commission on Elections, who will be unable to cast his vote on May 13. He checked his status in the Comelec’s precinct finder only to find that his name

By JONATHAN DE SANTOS RESIDENTS of Casiguran opposed to the construction and land conversion at the Aurora Pacific Economic and Freeport Zone (APECO) may be barking up the wrong tree, APECO spokesman Kent Avestruz said Tuesday. In a telephone interview with Vera Files, Avestruz said APECO has been doing road construction in areas covered by the

By JONATHAN DE SANTOS CHRISTIAN Losano, an 18-year-old Agta Dumagat, can cite several reasons why he is opposed to the freeport zone project in Aurora province, but he gets really emotional when he talks about how the venture is tearing their community apart. The Aurora Pacific Economic Zone (APECO), the pet project of the Angaras,