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THEY BELONG to some of the most prominent political clans in central Mindanao, yet they are carving a path far removed from the mold of the traditional roles of their royal…

IN ONE of the many raids conducted by government troops on the Ampatuan properties after the 2009 Maguindanao massacre, investigators came across a black bag containing a bundle of…

(Link to full size version of this diagram) A SPIDER couldn’t have spun a more complicated network: the diagram before you shows blood and affinal lines that link the Ampatuans to…

HOW DO public officials with secret offshore accounts react, when found out? The PCIJ confronted a senator, a congressman, and two former government executives with questions about…

IN TEN out of the 13 Statements of Assets, Liabilities, and Net Worth (SALN) that she filed as member of Congress from June 1998 to June 2007, Ma. Imelda ‘Imee’ R. Marcos, eldest…

The International Consortium of Investigative Journalists’ exploration of the secretive world of offshore companies and trusts began after a computer hard drive packed with…

THE Open Budget Survey 2012 bears bad news about budget transparency in the Philippines, but the story seems more upbeat in the areas of budget oversight and public participation.

IN PCIJ’s analysis, the biggest obstacles to achieving full transparency in the high court seem to be its top two officials: Chief Justice Ma. Lourdes P. A. Sereno and Associate…

FOUR months of research, more than two dozen requests, and at least half a gigabyte of documents. That was what it took to produce this four-part series on the Statements of…

GOVERNMENT-SPEAK is bewildering enough for the layman, but when talks turn to money received by public servants, things can get even more confusing. To help taxpayers understand…

HOW much do taxpayers pay officials for their services in government? Except for general and lump figures provided in budget documents and relevant laws, little had been known…

MARY GRACE MORALES lost two loved ones in the Maguindanao Massacre of Nov.23, 2009 — her husband Rosell, a reporter for News Focus, and her sister Marites Cablitas, a reporter of…

ARNEL CORTEZ MANALOTO, the lawyer of Andal Ampatuan Jr. who purchased eight of his properties in Davao City, is actually a young, recently married trial lawyer based in Angeles…

IT impeached and prosecuted then Chief Justice Renato C. Corona for his failure to declare full and truthful details of his wealth in his Statement of Assets, Liabilities, and Net…

PRESIDENT Benigno Simeon C. Aquino III said it best when he declared dissatisfaction over the short list of chief justice candidates that was handed to him by the Judicial and Bar…

DON’T GET mad. Sue. That’s what Feliciano Mendoza and three of his fellow former barangay captains decided to do after they said they found out their signatures had been forged for…

A NUMBER of local government units (LGUs) have joined the pork-barrel bandwagon and launched slush funds for their councilors. The funds usually come from the Local Development…

AUCTIONS for civil-works contractors to carry out “hard” or infrastructure-related pork-barrel projects must be lonely affairs. There is only one bidder for each of the competitive…

ON ANY given day, the corridors of the East Avenue Medical Center (EAMC) in Quezon City leading to the Medical Social Service are filled with patients and their relatives seeking…

A LONG and malleable list of projects that could serve both the welfare of “indigent” families and the political stock of lawmakers is enrolled in Republic Act No. 10155, the…

MAINSTREAM MEDIA have oft portrayed them as belligerent, intransigent, even war-mongering. But when the negotiating panel of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) faced the…