Politics.

IN THE SUMMER of 1977, four young students graduating from the Ateneo de Manila high school applied for the Reserve Officers Training Corps (ROTC) program, hoping to become Air…

THE HORRIBLY costly air war for the presidency has in recent weeks ceased being the exclusive domain of moneyed politicians and political parties. The new players and big buyers of…

THIS presidential campaign is turning out to be the most expensive yet in Philippine political history, but it is also a story of two extremes – profligacy and penny-pinching on…

THERE are still a few more weeks to go before the May polls, but the Commission on Elections (Comelec) is already busy counting – political ads, that is, not votes. Election laws…

IT’S A disconcerting paradox to say the least: In their avowed desire to serve in the highest office of the land, the top two candidates for president – Senator Manuel B. Villar…

MANY PEOPLE had dismissed the then still toddler blogosphere as only the domain of socially challenged geeks and nerds locked up in a dark basement behind a battery of computers…

FOR NETIZENS already inured to the sight of presidential candidate Manuel ‘Manny’ Villar Jr. peering back at them from what should be their private Facebook or email pages, what’s…

WHAT regulations? The Commission on Elections (Comelec) may be keeping tab on political ads in the broadcast and print media, but so far it has refrained from issuing guidelines on…

IN MANY ways, what is starting to happen on the Internet has been happening in the mobile realm. The mobile phone penetration rate in the country was estimated to hit 75.2 percent…

THE COMMISSION on Audit (COA) is probably used to seeing dismal book-keeping from government units, but in the last several years, it seems to have become particularly challenged…

THE STORY goes that in his younger, wilder days, Andal Ampatuan Sr. — patriarch of the powerful family that holds sway over Maguindanao and much of the Autonomous Region in Muslim…

IN THE nation’s third poorest province, Maguindanao, the poverty incidence is a staggering 62 percent – five of every six residents live on less than a dollar a day. And by all…

MAURA Montano doesn’t live in General Santos City anymore – not after the family breadwinner, Montano’s daughter Marife or ‘Neneng,’ who worked at radio station DXCP and Saksi…

IN THE unnervingly expensive race for the Philippine presidency, the candidates who splurge are those less open to discussing their campaign spending, while candidates who spend…

THEY probably thought they got a free pass to flood television with political ads beyond the airtime and spending limits set in law, having run commercials before the 90-day…

IT’S AN air war for now for the candidates for president; it’s an air war for their running mates, too. Just like their respective parties’ standard bearers, the leading candidates…

CANDIDATES and political parties are not the only ones who have to submit documents to the Commission on Elections (Comelec) once the campaign period starts. According to Comelec…

JUST a mere month into the 90-day official campaign period, three presidential candidates have already used up more than half of their allowed ad airtime in the country’s two top…

This report exposes what population experts call a statistical anomaly with grave implications on the conduct and results of the May 10, 2010 elections the inexplicable sharp spike…