The series of data breaches at government agencies has resulted in the theft of millions of Filipinos’ personal information not only once but twice or even thrice, in gross violation of their right to privacy. Understandably, the theft is causing Filipinos to lose trust in the offices that keep their personal data even as the...
Category: News
Post
Make the fight against breast cancer stronger
CALAPAN CITY, Mindoro Oriental—Dr. Patty Caballero-Cabral had been undergoing mammography and ultrasound examinations yearly since 2013, and all results turned out normal. In 2020, however, when the Covid-19 pandemic upended life all over the world, her checkup routine was disrupted and she found herself spending most of her time attending to patients in the public...
Post
Punlaan School provides fertile ground for women empowerment
Long before women empowerment became a global movement, Filipino women had been holding their own in the home and the community. In precolonial times, they held equal status with men. Colonizers may have redefined their role in society, but they strove to defy their demotion, asserting their rights and capabilities while rallying around one another. ...
Post
Philippines prepares for 3 elections in next two years; 10 urgent tasks for Comelec, voters
The Commission on Elections (Comelec) as well as the poll watchdogs have a full plate as the country prepares to hold three elections in the next two years. While everyone is gearing up for the barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan elections (BSKE) on Oct. 30, preparations are also already underway for at least two elections in...
Post
What to Know: Are confidential funds secret funds not subject to audit?
The use of confidential funds (CF) by the Office of Vice President Sara Duterte, concurrently the secretary of education, continues to be in the news and in social media posts. While most of the comments dwell on the P125 million in confidential funds supposedly spent in an 11-day period in December 2022, among the other...
Post
Detention, ‘town arrest’ under martial law
It was a comfortless humid night in July 1974 in Zamboanga City when agents of the National Intelligence Security Agency (Nisa) arrested me. I was then a philosophy undergraduate student and an activist at the University of the Philippines Diliman. I was visiting my mother’s hometown to attend the funeral of my maternal grandmother, Isabel...
Post
What’s the endgame for electoral fraud?
Electoral fraud, also called vote rigging, voter fraud or election manipulation, involves illegal interference in the process of an election, either by increasing the vote share of a favored candidate, depressing the vote share of rival candidates, or both. Through the TNTrio’s scrutiny of hard data coming from the Commission on Elections (Comelec) itself and...
Post
Tarlac rice farmers, retailers suffering losses due to price cap
Rice farmers and retailers are incurring heavy losses from the price cap imposed starting on Sept. 5 on regular-milled and well-milled rice even as it brings temporary relief to consumers. Executive Order No. 39 (EO 39) set the price of regular-milled and well-milled rice at P41 and P45 a kilo, respectively, amid soaring prices of...
Post
Petitioners want Smartmatic out of next polls for ‘meeting with Marcos Jr.’s wife before May 2022 elections’
Representatives of Smartmatic met with the future first lady before the May 9, 2022, presidential election, violating their contract as the automated election system (AES) provider for the Commission on Elections (Comelec), according to a motion to disqualify the company from involvement in the 2025 polls. The submission to the Comelec on Sept. 11 is...
Post
Family and Fossils: Million-year-old gifts from my wife and sisters
(Third of three parts) Family and fossils: My cousin Isko and my first precious find, Family and fossils: My grandchild Meg and a treasure trove I have in my hand a fossil—the remains of an ancient creature called a trilobite. This animal-looking rock resulted when the trilobite was buried and minerals replaced its body parts....