Featured Stories.

They come from one of the poorest provinces of the country but the Ampatuans ranked among Asia’s crazy rich, while they were in power. Court records showed that they owned five…

The defense panel invokes the high bar of “presumption of innocence” for the accused, under the Constitution. The prosecution says it has presented evidence and eyewitnesses to…

There is, according to defense lawyers, not enough evidence to convict Datu Unsay Ampatuan. for the massacre of 58 persons. His lawyer said neither the bullets nor the guns used in…

The Ampatuans, according to prosecution witnesses, had planned to murder Toto Mangudadatu as early as July 2009, when he declared he was running for governor to contest the…

The Ombudsman’s lifestyle check on the Ampatuans in 2010 showed that Andal Sr. alone “has amassed unexplained wealth manifestly and excessively out of proportion to his legitimate…

Accused Datu Unsay Ampatuan and three other witnesses testified for the defense panel that they were not present at the site of the massacre on the day the Mangudadatu convoy was…

Records of the Land Transportation Office show that the Ampatuans could have as many as 121 various vehicles, including at least 53 top-of-line luxury rides that are the latest of…

The prosecution presented eight key witnesses, including a former vice mayor and a former trusted man of the Ampatuans. Separately, they testified on how they saw the planning and…

Rodrigo R. Duterte is a most secretive President when it comes to the details of his wealth. To this day, eight months after the April 30 deadline for filing, he has not released a…

Fraught still with attacks and threats — that is the sorry state of media freedom in the Philippines under the Duterte Administration. It highlights the unyielding reign of…

A week after the Ampatuan Massacre of Nov. 23, 2009, the Ampatuans tried to secure amnesty for dozens of their high-powered, high-end firearms. After the massacre, the AFP…

From 2002 to 2008, COA reports had scored huge expenses for what could have been identical projects in Maguindanao and ARMM, under the Ampatuans. The reports painted a sorry…

Numerous motions filed by lawyers of the accused Ampatuans had stretched the pace of the trial interminably. By 2013, they had filed nine motions for the judge to recuse herself…

The Ampatuans were Arroyo’s anointed lieutenants in ARMM, their alliance built largely on largesse. But the cash bonanza that Maguindanao secured from Arroyo failed dismally to…

Until they were charged with the murder of 58 persons on Nov. 23, 2009, the Ampatuans lived in mansions, traveled with a retinue of armed escorts in a convoy of black SUVs, flew…

Whoever steps down among “the Gods of Padre Faura” – and all judges and justices in the Philippines, in fact – gets to take home a stash of cash and a bagful of fancy tokens. But…

One has been chosen but who is the fairest, fittest of them all? Three associate justices of the Supreme Court were nominated to the chief justice’s post. What vision, judicial…

At least one in five victims of drug-related killings in Metro Manila in 2016 and 2017 were beneficiaries of the Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program (4Ps), our field and database…

Problems with procurement, logistics, supply chain management, tight implementation schedules, and bad — really bad — project management. A series of unfortunate events turned the…

Across the Philippines’ 81 provinces, from 30 to over 50 percent of voters failed to vote for party-list groups in May 2019. Many voters missed the names of party-list groups…

Most of the candidates are from the administration-backed Hugpong ng Pagbabago (HNP) and the Liberal Party’s Otso Diretso. The number of candidates covered by the overview/scan…