MANILA, Philippines (4th UPDATE) – The Commission on Elections (Comelec) will allow 79 groups to run in the 2013 party-list race, Comelec Chair Sixto Brillantes Jr said Thursday, November 29.

Those allowed by the Comelec to run include the following controversial groups: Gabriela, Anakpawis, Buhay, and An Waray. The poll body also allowed the gay rights group Ang Ladlad to run in 2013.

Commission on Elections (Comelec) Chair Sixto Brillantes Jr on Tuesday, November 27, told reporters the Comelec will grant the bids of no more than a hundred old and new applicants for the 2013 party-list race. This is around 34% of the 289 groups that submitted their party-list applications in April.

Three weeks before Congress breaks for Christmas, House Speaker Sonny Belmonte is making one last-ditch attempt to get President Noynoy Aquino to step in and push for the passage of the controversial Reproductive Health bill (RH bill). Belmonte said he is arranging to meet the President next week.

MANILA, Nov 24 (PIA) -- The Commission on Elections (Comelec) has accredited the Parish Pastoral Council for Responsible Voting (PPCRV) as its citizen’s arm for the May 2013 national and local elections.

“The Commission recognizes PPCRV as one of the organizations which has established its membership and structure all over the Philippines and has demonstrated its capacity to promote public interest,” Comelec spokesperson James Jimenez said in a statement.

QUEZON CITY, Nov. 23 (PIA)--A labor official expressed hope that President Benigno S. Aquino III will sign into law the final enrolled version of the Kasambahay Bill next week.

“It will be the most fitting, early Christmas gift the Congress and the President of the Philippines can give to our domestic workers,” Labor & Employment Secretary Rosalinda Baldoz said in a statement.