COMMENTARY: It's high time for the president and our legislators to consider a Department of Maritime and Ocean Affairs built around the existing Presidential Office for Maritime Concerns. This would then become the lead agency for maritime security, maritime domain awareness, and compliance with UNCLOS and the 2016 Arbitral Award, and for the formulation of integrated maritime policies covering security, environment, fisheries, shipping, and ports.

At the hearing at the Pius Center in Paco, Manila, Luzviminda Siapo testified about the killing of her 19-year-old son, Raymart Siapo, who had a clubfoot.

For two days, Aug. 11 and 12, Commission on Audit supervising auditor Xylene Mae del Campo returned to a deceptively simple point: Acknowledgment receipts may show that someone received money, but they do not, by themselves, establish why the money was paid, whether the expense was authorized or whether a claimed confidential operation actually succeeded.