The Commission on Elections should require television stations that have aired the life story of any candidate before the start of the campaign period to extend the same privilege to other candidates, said lawyer Romulo Makalintal.

According to him, Chairman Sixto Brillantes has admitted that “airing the episodes of the life story of a senatorial candidate is obviously campaigning” but discounted premature campaigning because under Section 13 of Automated Election Law, “unlawful acts applicable to a candidate shall take effect only upon the start of the campaign period” which starts on February 12 for national candidates and March 29 for local bets.

MANILA, Philippines – The Senate ratified Tuesday the bicameral conference committee report on the amendments to the Overseas Absentee Voting Act.
Amendments to the OAV include the removal of a provision requiring Filipinos

MANILA, Philippines – The Commission on Elections (Comelec) was grilled at the Senate Wednesday over the reported glitches that marred the operations of the Precinct Count Optical Scan (PCOS) machines during a recent mock election.
The joint congressional oversight committee on automated election system, headed by Senator Alan Peter Cayetano, questioned poll officials why some of the ballots were spewed out by the optical machines.
Poll executive director Jose Tolentino Jr. blamed incorrect feeding of the ballots into the machine by some participants of the mock election.
Comelec Chairman Sixto Brillantes Jr. said that improper insertion of the ballot causes folding or crumpling of the ballot.
He said that may explain why some of the security features of the ballot were altered.

MANILA, Philippines—The Supreme Court on Tuesday extended indefinitely its order suspending the implementation of the cybercrime law, which would penalize with imprisonment offensive posts on Twitter, Facebook and other social networking sites and which critics said would violate the constitutional guarantee of freedom of expression.
The court ruling came a day before Congress adjourns for the election without the House of Representatives acting on the long-pending proposed Freedom of Information Act, regarded as the foundation of any democratic state conscious of the people’s right to know. This means the bill is again dead in the water and will be back to square one in the new Congress.

Filipinos were the most optimistic consumers in Southeast Asia and the second most optimistic in the world, defying a broad global decline in confidence during the fourth quarter of 2012, according to an international polling firm.
Market research specialist Nielsen said Tuesday that Philippine consumer confidence stood at an index of 119 in the final quarter of last year, representing a one-point increase from the previous quarter. More importantly, across the 58 countries Nielsen measured for the period, confidence declined in 33 countries, remained flat in six countries and increased in 19 countries from the prior quarter.