Archive - Vote 2013

By MIKHA FLORES THREE weeks to go to the May 13 polls, the Commission on Elections is starting to receive reports of vote-buying by candidates. Elections Commissioner Grace Padaca said Monday she has received reports that rice and grocery items were being doled out by politicians in her hometown in Isabela but she declined to

By DARLENE CAY and VINCE NONATO A clean election is on many people’s wish-list. To environmentalists, this means less trash or even zero waste during the campaign and polling day itself. It also means using campaign materials that are less harmful to Mother Nature. With three weeks to go before elections, campaigning is heating up

By CHERRY JOY VENILES Graphics by JB URIETA IT’S that time of year when Philippine society goes on a tailspin. The 2013 summer season blockbuster telenovela that is the election campaign is now showing, powered by a multi-billion peso political advertising industry. It has all the ingredients of a hit. Parents, siblings, spouses and in-laws

By MARK PERE MADRONA A group of music industry stakeholders are appealing to candidates to obtain the necessary permits before using local or foreign songs in their campaign activities, warning that they can be held liable for violating the country’s existing copyright law. Filipino Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers (FILSCAP) president Noel Cabangon said

By REYNARD MAGTOTO LEGAZPI City —Despite the recent uproar over the energy privatization in Albay, candidates have refused to join the fray and remain mum on the issue. On April 15, the National Electrification Administration (NEA) decided to finally privatize the bankrupt Albay Electric Cooperative (Aleco), the country’s second biggest electric cooperative. Stakeholders in Albay have

By MIKHA FLORES UPDATED AND CORRECTED: The designation of lawyer Al Parreño as elections commissioner is the latest and at least fifth government appointment given to the ranks of prosecutors in the impeachment trial of Renato Corona since the Senate convicted the Supreme Court chief justice on a 20-3 vote in May last year. This

By ARTHA KIRA PAREDES COTABATO City — The Department of Education in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao is organizing teams of teachers to deal with threats of violence on Election Day, in what is believed to be the first measure of its kind to protect the election frontliners. The agency launched today the DepEd-ARMM

By ARTHA KIRA PAREDES COTABATO City— Social Studies teacher Abunawas Solaiman clearly remembers the 2004 elections because, he said, it was the only time he felt safe serving as a member of the Board of Election Inspectors. He was then assigned at precinct 21-A in Barangay Katbo, Matanog in Maguindanao, serving alongside a policeman and a marine

By CHERRY JOY VENILES A decade after Overseas Absentee Voting for Filipinos residing abroad was signed into law, many remain skeptical regarding the practicality and value of mounting a campaign to bring in the overseas Filipino vote. But with more than 10 million Filipinos overseas in 200 countries and $23 billion in remittances for 2012 alone,

By MIKHA FLORES THE Commission of Elections’ months-long negotiations for the release of the source code for the automated machines to be used in the May 13 elections have come to naught. “Masamang-masama ang loob ko (I really feel bad about it)…I’ve wasted my time negotiating since November. Pinaghirapan ko ito. Tapos wala rin palang mangyayari (I gave

By CHERRY JOY VENILES GARY Garcia has been working as a seaman for almost 10 years—and has been a registered absentee voter for just as long.   In fact, it’s as long as Republic Act 9189 or the Overseas Absentee Voting Law, which provides for a system for Filipino citizens working or residing outside the Philippines to

JOSEPH Victor Ejercito-Estrada of the United Nationalist Alliance leads senatorial candidates in poster violations after almost two months of campaigning. The Commission on Elections’ legal department has sent eight notices to Estrada asking him to remove campaign materials found in places not designated as common poster areas. The other senatorial candidates with the most number