Sajid Akram, who with his son Naveed killed 15 persons in an attack at Sydney’s Bondi Beach on Dec. 14, was seen jogging with Naveed each morning and visited a gun shop during their nearly monthlong stay in Davao City. Police Maj. Catherine dela Rey, spokesperson of the Police Regional Office (PRO) 11, told CoverStory...
Category: News
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Ex-DPWH official Cabral dead just as bicam produces ‘corruption-free’ budget
On the day Congress came one step away from approving the proposed “corruption-free” ₱6.793-trillion national budget for 2026, a former official of the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) being investigated in connection with the anomalous multibillion-peso flood control projects fell to her death from Kennon Road in Tuba, Benguet. The body of former...
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Año says no evidence of Bondi shooters’ terror training in Mindanao
There is no confirmation that the father-and-son gunmen who killed 15 people in Sydney’s Bondi Beach received “military-style training” in southern Philippines before the Dec. 14 attack, National Security Adviser Eduardo Año said on Wednesday. “No evidence supports such a claim at present,” Año, a former chief of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP),...
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Budget reform advocates urge the bicam: Abolish unprogrammed appropriations
With the first-ever open bicameral conference (bicam) set to start on Dec. 13 to reconcile the Senate and House versions of the proposed ₱6.7-trillion national budget for 2026, reform advocates have one distinctive call: for the bicam members to abolish unprogrammed appropriations (UA) in the budget measure that have been the source of “insertions” and...
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Ombudsman ruling not to prosecute ‘tokhang’ officers seen as a ‘legal paradox’
Lawyers for the sole survivor of an alleged extrajudicial killing by the police during an antidrug operation nine years ago are urging the Supreme Court to reconsider its ruling upholding the Office of the Ombudsman’s decision to junk their petition to charge four officers and six civilian informants with multiple murder and frustrated murder. In...
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‘Intense, stressful ICI work’ and family security concerns force Singson to resign
Rogelio “Babes” Singson has resigned as commissioner of the Independent Commission for Infrastructure (ICI) barely three months after his appointment, making him the second high-profile official to leave the panel amid mounting concerns about its mandate and power to look into the corruption scandal centered on the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH). ICI...
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Prayer rally in Naga calls for justice and accountability in flood control mess
NAGA CITY—John Oliver Mimay, 32, and 13 others travelled for five hours from the town of Irosin in Sorsogon to this city to join a prayer rally against the widespread corruption involving politicians in infrastructure projects undertaken by the Department of Public Works and Highways and private contractors. The group composed of volunteers from the...
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‘Allocable’ funds are the new pork barrel
The Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) builds bridges that connect people, streetlights that make roads safer, and classrooms that serve schoolchildren. In the agency’s words, it is their mission to bring about “a comfortable life for Filipinos through safe, reliable and resilient infrastructure.” But recent congressional investigations have exposed the true nature of...
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Duterte to spend Christmas in detention after ICC rejects his release
The International Criminal Court (ICC) has rejected former president Rodrigo Duterte’s appeal for temporary liberty. The 80-year-old former prosecutor and mayor, who gained a reputation as “The Punisher” for his iron-fisted anticrime policy, will remain in detention in The Hague where he will spend Christmas thousands of kilometers from his home in Davao City. The...
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Under Naga’s ‘Carless Sunday’ program, Magsaysay Avenue becomes a playground
NAGA CITY— Magsaysay Avenue, normally a four-lane artery buzzing with traffic, transforms into a playground on Sunday nights. Under this city’s “Magsaysay Carless Sundays” program, the avenue is filled, not with motor vehicles, but with strolling families, children busy drawing on the street, cruising skaters, and fitness buffs moving to the beat of Zumba music....