Posted on May 8, 2010 by Jun Bautista
The glitches on the voting machines’ memory cards found during Monday’s mock polls have generated calls for either postponement of the May 10 elections or reverting it to manual voting. Monday’s exercise has further heightened the public’s fear of a rigged or failed elections, and the Comelec-Smartmatic assurance has not helped in assuaging this fear.
As [...]
Posted on February 17, 2010 by Jun Bautista
The entertainment industry recently rose up in arms against the Comelec for making known its intention to strictly enforce a resolution implementing the Fair Elections Act (R.A. 9006), which requires celebrities to resign or take a leave of absence from their work during the campaign period if they campaign for or against a candidate in [...]
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Posted on February 10, 2010 by Jun Bautista
While the United States is still abuzz with the US Supreme Court’s recent ruling in Citizens United v. Federal Elections Commission – which removed the prohibition on campaign spending by corporations and unions directly from their coffers, in a latest round of more than a century of debate to reform campaign finance – campaign finance [...]
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Posted on January 22, 2010 by Jun Bautista
In a 26-page decision, the Commission on Elections’ (Comelec) Second Division junked the disqualification case filed against Erap Estrada by ruling that the constitutional prohibition on reelection to the presidency found in Article VII, Section 4 applies only to the incumbent president.
According to Commissioner Nicodemo Ferrer, who penned the decision, “respondent Joseph ‘Erap’ Estrada no [...]
Posted on December 29, 2009 by Jun Bautista
Manny Pacquiao has proven himself on the ring many times already that a fight with Floyd Mayweather, Jr. – although it would certainly add laurels to his cap, not to mention money to his already bulging pockets, if he were to win and there’s a big chance that he just might – is not really [...]
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Posted on December 25, 2009 by Jun Bautista
The National Press Club (NPC) has decried lawyer Sigfried Fortun’s decision to defend Datu Unsay Mayor Andal Ampatuan, Jr., suspect on the Maguindanao massacre that claimed the lives of 57 people, including 30 journalists. It is even reportedly contemplating on declaring Fortun as a persona non grata and banning him from attending all media events.
While [...]
Posted on December 1, 2009 by Jun Bautista
Post-presidential involvement in politics is not something new. We know, for example, that the late Corazon Aquino continued to involve herself in politics long after she ceased being president, as did Fidel Ramos and Joseph “Erap” Estrada. In the US, from which we copied our presidential system of government, many former US Presidents continued to [...]
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Posted on October 18, 2009 by Jun Bautista
As early as 1896, Swedish chemist Svante Arrhenius predicted the warming of the Earth’s temperature through an increase in the emission of carbon dioxide (CO2). At that time, however, given the rate of CO2 emissions then, Arrhenius was not alarmed by this possibility. More than a century later, Arrhenius’s prediction has become a reality with [...]
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Posted on September 28, 2009 by Jun Bautista
Just a little over a month after Republic Act No. 9710, otherwise known as the Magna Carta of Women, has been approved, the Catholic Church is already laying the basis for an exemption from the full application of the law. In a speech during the Catholic Educational Association of the Philippines (CEAP) national convention, Monsignor [...]
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Posted on September 10, 2009 by Jun Bautista
On August 25, 1975, a half hour before midnight, and from his dark and desolate prison cell in Fort Bonifacio, Ninoy Aquino typed his last words of advice and farewell – or so he thought it would be – to his son Noynoy. In the concluding portion of his letter, he said, “Son, the ball [...]
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