In the interest of fairness, I publish this letter which was emailed to me last night by Harry Roque in response to the allegations made against him by Dept. of Justice prosecutors in connection with the murder of another witness in the Ampatuan massacre case. We thank Chief State Prosecutor Claro Arellano, Assistant Chief State [...]

Got this by email from Nena Santos, lawyer for the Magundadatu family. It’s a statement from DoJ prosecutors in the ongoing word war between Harry Roque and the DoJ. It will be recalled that Roque has blamed the DoJ for the recent death of one of the witnesses in the case. The prosecutors, led by [...]

It happened one by one in different parts of the country. In Brookes Point Palawan, local Comelec officials plugged in the PCOS machines that would be used to count the votes on May 10th and took them through their paces. In the presence of representatives of local candidates, they filled out ten sample ballots and [...]

I got a text message from PCGG Commisioner Ric Abcede early yesterday morning. He was inviting me to a press conference that morning where he would talk about what he called a “universal settlement” with the Marcos family and their cronies, the latest on Imelda Marcos’ jewels, and, get this–his defense of Justice Secretary Alberto [...]

Imagine this. You are Ampatuan patriarch Andal. Gloria Macapagal Arroyo has bowed to international outrage and had you and over a hundred of your sons, nephews, and other relatives and loyal retainers arrested for mass murder. You, who were instrumental in Gloria Macapagal Arroyo’s 2004 hook-or-by -crook election. And yet she has succumbed to international [...]

Justice Secretary Alberto Agra is digging in his heels after he created a political firestorm by inexplicably dropping charges against two suspects in the Maguindanao massacre. The massacre of 58 people in November was so brazen, so brutal, and so shocking; and public reaction was so swift and universal that the Arroyo regime has no [...]

When was studying in Ateneo, I was told that if i got caught plagarizing someone else’s work, I could be expelled. I took that to heart. When Manny Pangilinan got caught plagarizing Obama, Oprah, and O’Brien, at the Ateneo college graduation, he did the honorable thing–he resigned from the university’s Board of Trustees. In doing [...]

Presidential candidate Gilbert Teodoro’s got a problem. PaLaKa, the much vaunted political party that is supposed to be backing him is more focused at this point on getting Gloria Macapagal Arroyo elected Speaker of the House than it is in getting him elected president. The resources needed to win this campaign have been withheld from [...]

At the height of the declaration of martial law in Maguindanao last year, a lawyer friend called me to say that he had figured out how the Arroyo Regime was going to save the Ampatuans.  This friend is sometimes given to conspiracy theories, but he has a superior legal and political mind, so when he [...]

The pieces are falling into place. Gloria Macapagal Arroyo’s longtime bodyguard, Delfin Bangit sits atop the chain of command of the Armed Forces. Arroyo is a shoo in for Speaker of the House following her near certain win in the 2nd district of Pampanga. And now she is set to appoint a loyal and pliant [...]