Datu Andal Ampatuan Sr, the patriarch of the Ampatuan warlord clan, is a very close ally of Philippine president Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo. Ampatuan’s role in the 2004 Hello Garci operation was substantial. Administration party candidates got ALL the votes of the Maguindanaoans last presidential elections, courtesy of course, by the Ampatuans whom election observers say, intimidated [...]

Chief Justice Reynato Puno’s call for a moral revolution smacks of a veiled attempt by traditional forces to present an anti-thetical platform against rising public perception of systems failure. It is an attempt to re-shift the focus, from systems change to personality change. Conservative forces who are benefitting from this dysfunctional system are the primary [...]