AFTER a wait of almost two and a half years, the Department of Health has finally issued an administrative order phasing out the use of mercury devices in all healthcare facilities in the Philippines over the next two years. Health Secretary Francisco...

THE woman who felled a dynasty in Isabela finds it hard to believe that she is the 2008 Ramon Magsaysay Awardee for Government Service. "It...never crossed my mind to wish for it, it's so beyond me," says Isabela Governor Maria Gracia Cielo 'Grace'...

“WE must overcome the entropy of the old tradition of secrecy," counseled Supreme Court Chief Justice Reynato Puno in his lengthy argument on the petition to have the government disclose details of the negotiations between the Philippines and Japan...

This post was written by Pamela Ordoveza, a senior mass communication student who is earning her summer internship credits with the PCIJ. IT'S still a good two years to the 2010 elections but the reported presidential frontrunners are already beginning...

SANGGUNIANG Kabataan (SK) council member Lira Sanchez (not her real name) remembers the first time she received her “SOP,” the so-called standard operating procedure, otherwise known as love gifts or kickbacks, from projects in their barangay in Metro...

BENJAMIN Abalos Sr.'s decision to resign from the Commission on Elections, many believe, can only herald auspicious times for the constitutionally mandated guardian of the ballot. After all, the poll body's credibility, integrity and independence had...

THE good news is that Filipino voters are becoming more discerning and many among the mass media are improving their coverage of elections. Yet the same positive assessment cannot be said of the electoral exercise itself and the Commission on Elections...