In 2017 when Jonathan Supsupin of La Trinidad, Benguet, had to get on track for senior high school, he chose Technical-Vocational-Livelihood (TVL). It was the first year of K-to-12 implementation and the middle child whose father is a vegetable picker at the trading post and whose mother works at a local hospital’s linen department was...
Category: News
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‘First Day Rage’ stirs UP campuses
Learning comes with militancy at the University of the Philippines (UP) right from the start of academic classes at UP Diliman and other campuses. In what was dubbed “First Day Rage,” students, faculty members, workers, community residents and other sectors assembled on Jan. 21, the first day of classes for the second semester of academic...
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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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The making of Edgar Matobato
It is a wonder Edgar Matobato is still alive. A confessed assassin for the Davao Death Squad, he was the first to go public about the killings allegedly ordered by former President Rodrigo Duterte. Since 2014, when he was detained and brutally tortured by his former comrades, Matobato has been on the run. For ten...
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Are candidates funding their own campaigns?
(Last of two parts) As early as January last year, Sen. Imee Marcos already aired 271 TV and radio ad spots worth P21 million based on published rate cards or before discounts. Every month after, President Marcos Jr.’s sister appeared on Filipino voters’ TV screens and spoke in radios across the country. She gradually increased...
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Patronage funds, bloated allocations mark 2025 nat’l budget, says ex-DBM chief
House Speaker Martin Romualdez handing out “ayuda” or cash aid to the poor in a Quezon City mall not only seemed odd but also violated the Supreme Court’s ruling on the “pork barrel,” according to former budget secretary Florencio “Butch” Abad. Politicians have been enjoying greater leeway in selecting beneficiaries and determining amounts of aid...
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Candidates aired P4B worth of TV, radio ads before filing
(First of two parts) Ads worth more than P4 billion have already aired on TV and radio stations across the Philippines even before candidates filed their certificates of candidacy (CoCs) last October. Close to a hundred candidates for senator, party-list and district representatives, other local positions, as well as political parties, had TV spots worth...
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Mangroves offer refuge from climate risk to Sorsogon folk, whale sharks
DONSOL, Sorsogon—On his day off from his two jobs last November, after two strong typhoons battered the Bicol region including this coastal town popular among tourists eager for an “encounter” with whale sharks, Antolin Cuelana queued for relief goods at the basketball court in Barangay Ogod. The queue in Ogod, the largest barangay in Donsol,...
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Wet welcome for 2025
The weather bureau is expecting rain in certain portions of the country as Filipinos welcome 2025 today, New Year’s Eve. How will this affect the traditional use of firecrackers? Rain is associated with luck, according to Chinese tradition, and it is believed that a wet New Year’s Day will bring yearlong prosperity, growth, and...
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Atom Araullo’s victory over Red-taggers also a win for others
Television journalist Atom Araullo and his lawyers said his landmark legal victory against Red-tagging can be used by other journalists and activists similarly victimized to thwart this dangerous labelling that opens them to various forms of harassment and intimidation. Araullo, 41, a multiawarded documentarist, won a P2-million civil lawsuit for damages against ex-anticommunist task force...