Stories.

SUBMITTING DOCUMENTS to government regulators is usually a routine matter assigned to messengers who hand over the parcels, and get a receipt in return. But when Manila Water Corp…

IN PRINCIPLE, the setting of basic water rates for customers of Manila Water Co. and Maynilad Water Services Inc. is easy enough to understand. Of course, the key phrase there is…

IF RULES on campaign finance will be followed, only five winning senatorial candidates will be allowed to assume office on June 30, 2013. That is until the rest of the candidates…

NEARLY A year would seem plenty time for senatorial candidates and their political parties to study the campaign-finance rules and regulations for the May 2013 elections so that…

THE BUREAU OF INTERNAL REVENUE (BIR) says it will investigate leads from the interactive database that reveals names of people from more than 170 countries, including the…

NINE SENATORIAL candidates and one party-list group in the recently concluded elections would have breached the airtime limit for political ads on TV had it not been for a crucial…

THIS COULD be the very first time in the history of the Commission on Elections (Comelec) that campaign-finance violations will be treated seriously. Never before has the failure…

Last of Two Parts IN THE LAST ELECTIONS, President Benigno Simeon C. Aquino III summoned voters to support his allies and associates who would supposedly help fulfill his epic…

First of Two Parts AMONG ITS many excuses for being, the government is supposed to combat crime and corruption. Those elected to office thus take a solemn oath before God, country…

IF YOU can’t jail them, elect them. If you do jail them, well, you can always elect them again. This appears to be a recurring theme in the Philippines, where the popular saying…

Last of Two Parts WHEN MEDIA marketing giant Universal McCann declared the Philippines the social networking capital in the world in 2009, it sounded as if every Tomas, Ricardo…

First of Two Parts IT’S STILL a game of cat and mouse, and when the cat is away, the mouse clicks like crazy. When the Commission on Elections (Comelec) started strictly enforcing…

ONE OUT of four senatorial bets in today’s elections is a woman, the highest rate of female participation yet in the senatorial race in the country’s history. But there is hardly a…

First of Four Parts IT MIGHT well be because he has had to fill out only two of them, compared to his colleagues who have already collected quite a pile. Whatever the reason…

Second of Four Parts BAYAN MUNA party-list representative Teodoro ‘Teddy’ Casiño ranks 283 out of 284 members of the Lower House in terms of declared net worth. That may be why…

Third of Four Parts THEY HAD been out of Congress for the last three years or more, but the nine former legislators who are among the 33 senatorial candidates in the upcoming…

Last of Four Parts HOW RICH are the Binays? Vice President Jejomar ‘Jojo’ Binay never fails to point to his humble beginnings, but for decades now, there has been non-stop…

TO EACH his own power base. Among the six senators who are raring to return to the Upper House, lawyers Alan Peter Cayetano, Chiz Escudero, and Koko Pimentel all belong to…

IF TEDDY Casiño is looking mighty lonely in the Senate race, it’s not only because he’s running as an independent. Among the House members now seeking a Senate seat, Casiño is the…

IT’S THE homestretch to the May 13, 2013 midterm elections, and the field personnel of the Commission on Elections (Comelec) are now feeling the pressure of the last of its…

OLD CRIB. The façade of what used to be a Geriatrics Center is now home to Manila’s Comelec Districts 1 to 6 . PCIJ Photo by Ilych Mana-ay THE COUNTRY’S capital has a population of…