Skip to content

Tag: Elections 2013

Making PWD votes count

Published by Ellen on May 9, 2013

Voters registration
Voters registration
Lawyer Harry Roque tried last Wednesday to withdraw P100,000 to pay the tuition fees of his children and was told that he couldn’t because of the stupid Comelec Resolution 9688 which prohibits “the withdrawal of cash, encashment of checks and conversion of any monetary instrument into cash from May 8 to 13, 2013 exceeeding P100,000 or its equivalent in any foreign currency.”

Comelec Commissioner Sixto Brillantes, Jr. said Resolution 9688 was to prevent vote buying and vote selling which have intensified with the computerization of the elections. He said they released it only Tuesday “so that no one would know about it.. because if they know about it, everyone would withdraw.”

Brillantes, who was a much sought-after election lawyer (President Aquino and former Maguindanao Governer Andal Ampatuan Sr., were his clients) before he joined his elections must be joking. Or could it be that he precisely knew that by now the silly money ban is useless.

Continue readingMaking PWD votes count

Preparing media for the 2013 elections

Published by Ellen on December 2, 2012

In six months, we will have the midterm national elections.

The May 13, 2013 elections will be the first national, automated, and synchronized (including the Autonomous Region for Muslim Mindanao) elections under the Aquino administration.

VERA Files, a group composed of veteran journalists that produces in-depth articles on current issues and conducts training for journalists, last week held a training-seminar for 18 journalists from different parts of the country.

The training seminar was supported by the Embassy of Canada through the Canada Fund for Local Initiatives. Benoit Girouard, second secretary in the Foreign Policy and Diplomacy Section of the Canadian Embassy, stressed the importance of a free, honest, responsible and independent media in a democracy.

Continue readingPreparing media for the 2013 elections