Whether they end up in the majority or minority bloc, Sen. Vicente Sotto III said, he and Sen. Panfilo Lacson will make sure that there will be no repeat of a “national budget” that was “mangled” last year in the Senate. The two lawmakers said they had been looking into irregularities in the ₱6.326-trillion national budget...
Author: Christine O. Avendaño (Christine Avendaño)
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Comelec proclaims 52 party-list groups, suspends Duterte Youth and BH due to pending cases
Only 52 party-list groups were proclaimed on May 19 by the Commission on Elections (Comelec), which decided to suspend the proclamation of two others, including Duterte Youth, because of pending disqualification cases against them. Comelec Chair George Erwin Garcia announced that 54 party-list groups won seats in the House of Representatives in the May 12...
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Imee Marcos grills her brother’s officials on Duterte arrest while they hold their ground
Justice Secretary Jesus Crispin Remulla defended on Thursday the government’s action to surrender former president Rodrigo Duterte to the International Criminal Court (ICC) and acknowledged that it was the first such incident in the country’s history. “It’s a case of first impression. This has never happened in our history,” Remulla said of the decision of...
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Presidential spokespersons should ‘fight fire with fire,’ says Pnoy’s ex-spox Edwin Lacierda
These are challenging times for President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.’s communications team as it fights fake news and troll armies hounding the administration even more intensely now, according to Edwin Lacierda, spokesperson of the late former president Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino III. “They have their work cut out for them,” Lacierda said of the President’s communicators in...
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Vice President Sara Duterte is impeached
The House of Representatives impeached Vice President Sara Duterte and immediately transmitted the complaint to the Senate on Wednesday, the last session day of Congress before it takes a four-month-long break for the midterm campaign and elections in May. “This complaint unmasks Sara Zimmerman Duterte, Vice President of the Republic, for what she truly is. She has...
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In praise of Edcel Lagman, ‘Bicol’s great son’
Tributes continue to be aired for Albay (first district) Rep. Edcel Lagman, who died on Jan. 30 after a long and illustrious career in lawmaking and defending human rights beginning in the Marcos Sr. dictatorship. In a Facebook post “mourning” the loss of Lagman, Leni Robredo said that when she was vice president, she constantly...
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Sen. Risa Hontiveros: ‘Teen pregnancy is an ongoing national and social emergency’
It is a trying time for Sen. Risa Hontiveros, the principal author of Senate Bill No. 1979 which aims “to educate, support and protect our children and students against early pregnancy” through such means as comprehensive sexuality education. Hontiveros has introduced last-minute changes to the measure in an effort to bring more clarity to it...
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Colonel held at the House over the holidays ordered moved to police station
For refusing to explain his claim that two cochairs of the House of Representatives’ quad committee had tried to coerce him to corroborate the alleged reward system for cops and hitmen in then President Rodrigo Duterte’s bloody war on drugs, a police officer held in the chamber over the holidays has been ordered transferred to...
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House quad committee uncovers ‘grand criminal enterprise’ in 13 hearings
The House of Representatives’ quad committee announced on Thursday that it has uncovered a “grand criminal enterprise” centering on former president Rodrigo Duterte in the course of conducting 13 hearings on the connections of illegal drugs, illegal offshore gambling hubs, and extrajudicial killings during the bloody “war on drugs.” “Ladies and gentlemen, the quad committee has started...
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House legislators chide ‘passive’ Anti-Money Laundering Council
Members of the House of Representatives’ quad committee on Wednesday expressed frustration at the seeming passiveness of the Anti-Money Laundering Council (AMLC) in seeking a freeze on the assets of Chinese nationals who had illegally acquired land and other properties in the country, including a warehouse in Mexico, Pampanga, which is under investigation since 2023...