And so the ending turned out to be just a numbers game. And what was betted upon was no petty sum. They actually gambled the very essence of democracy and what it really means when we say “clean elections”. The Comelec second division yesterday declared Lilia “Nanay Baby” Pineda, winner by a breath against Priest-turned-politician Ed [...]

A caller, reportedly an ardent anti-Miriam defensor-Santiago, reportedly threatened to bomb the Commission on Elections office this morning. James Jimenez, COMELEC spokesperson, says that they have alerted the Philippine National Police (PNP) and the police sent a bomb squad to check on the report. No bombs or explosive improvise device (EID) was found. Jimenez said the caller [...]

Ang Ladlad, the national organization of Filipino homosexuals, is now an accredited partylist organization after the Supreme Court ordered the Commission on Elections to include it in the list of partylist organizations while its petition remains pending before the High Tribunal. If you remember, Ang Ladlad was disqualified by the Commission on Elections twice. The latest [...]

Comelec commissioner Nicodemus Ferrer, chair of the Comelec’s second division, is a member of Binmaley’s ageing population. The oldest among the present crop of election commissioners, Ferrer positions himself as a moral praetorian guard. Decide if Ferrer’s defense on rejecting Ang Ladlad’s petition for accreditation deserves our greatest praise: Ferrer argued the decision has sufficient legal [...]

Some sectors are questioning the “propriety” of the Comelec’s second division’s decision to junk Ang Ladlad’s partylist accreditation. The resolution, penned by no less than the division’s chief, Commissioner Nicodemo Ferrer, was the second time the COMELEC junked the accreditation bid. On the first try, the COMELEC did, indeed, rendered a judicious one—Ang Ladlad’s constituency, [...]

Total Information Management or TIM just withdrew from its consortium agreement with Smartmatic, rendering the entire poll automation contract in jeopardy. Comelec Chairman Jose Melo said that TIM officials led by its CEO Jose Antunez formally gave their letter of resignation yesterday. Melo hinted the possibility of reverting to manual counting. Or, as COMELEC legal [...]