The Senate can do “no less” than adopt the House of Representatives’ realignment of P1.23-billion in confidential funds in the proposed P5.768-trillion national budget for 2024, Sen. Risa Hontiveros said on Wednesday. “The House has taken the first step institutionally. So I think we in the Senate can do no less because we actually started...
Category: News
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There’s no way home for some residents of 4 Marawi villages
MARAWI CITY, Philippines—Bantog Panomblayan firmly stomps on broken red tiles abandoned on the ground. “Eto na ngayon ang bahay ko,” he says. “Na-mimiss ko nga ‘to. Nu’ng nakita ko, parang sumama loob ko.” (This is my house now. When I saw these tiles, I felt angry. I miss my home.) The house is gone. Only...
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Theft of millions of Filipinos’ personal data eroding public trust
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...
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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...
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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. ...
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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...
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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...
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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...
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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...
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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...