VERA Files
By MELISSA LUZ LOPEZ BAKA wala nang liga. There might be no sports fest anymore. Ian, 15, recalls his main worry when he heard the news that the Sangguniang Kabataan (SK) or youth council elections were being postponed. (All the names in this story have been changed—Ed.) Like hundreds of thousands of Filipinos aged 15 […]
By DANIEL ABUNALES ISABELA, Basilan – Violence and conflicts among candidates in elections in the Autonomous Region in MuslimMindanao (ARMM) are averted through negotiation among opposing parties. This has been the approach used by leaders in the region to achieve peaceful polls. But in Basilan, the process of discussing in order to reach agreement has […]
By MELISSA LUZ LOPEZ LIGAYA Patañaga, 81, was the first voter to experience the relative comfort of voting at the accessible polling place (APP) at SM Manila for the barangay elections. She was all-praises for the voting center, which was very convenient for her compared to the Araullo High School, where she always had to […]
By VERA FILES (UPDATED) The nationwide barangay election on Monday was generally peaceful despite scattered violent incidents and cases of election offenses, the Commission on Elections said. “On the overall, at this point in time, mukhang okay na okay ang nangyayari. Wala kaming masyadong problema (There are few election-related incidents so far. It seems everything is […]
By CHERRY JOY VENILES UNLIKE the May 2013 automated polls, the barangay election on Monday is a return to basics: manual voting where pens, blank ballots and a good old blackboard/whiteboard are the order of the day. After reading through a certified list of candidates stapled inside ballot secrecy folders, voters will fill up their ballots […]
By DANIEL ABUNALES ZAMBOANGA CITY – In tomorrow’s barangay elections, there will be 20 polling places across the country where public school teachers will work alongside private individuals as election tellers. Under an arrangement with the Commission on Elections, the Legal Network for Truthful Elections (LENTE) will be fielding citizen volunteers in 20 pre-selected polling […]
By VINCE NONATO THE Commission on Elections has finally signed the P100 million check to fund the honoraria and other expenses of police and army deputies tasked to maintain peace and order and carry out other election-related duties, Chairman Sixto Brillantes Jr. announced Friday. The funds, P60 million of which will go to the Philippine […]
By VICENTE ALEJANDRO TACLOBAN CITY – Thousands of policemen have been deployed to different parts of Eastern Visayas to help secure the barangay elections on Monday. This week alone, some 3,980 policemen were sent to man the Police Assistance Desks (PADs) in clustered voting centers throughout the region. Earlier, more than 900 cops were deployed to […]
A word of advice from Commission on Elections spokesman James Jimenez: guard against vote-buying but exercise prudence when documenting such acts. The public was helpful in documenting vote-buying and other violations in the May elections and in Monday’s barangay polls, citizens are again expected to be vigilant. But the poll official warns: take it easy with […]
By VINCE NONATO AS in previous elections, police and military personnel will serve as election tellers in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) in Monday’s barangay polls, in place of teachers who have refused to render service. Teachers across the country normally serve as election tellers but fearing for their safety, many in the […]