2016 Elections

Dutertes mix up data on 23 business
interests, posts of 16 relatives in gov’t

By Floreen Simon and Malou Mangahas   Return to the full network Information Pane Connections:   BY THE DISCLOSURES in their asset records, President Rodrigo Duterte, Davao City Mayor Sara Duterte, and former Davao City Vice Mayor Paolo Duterte have interests and engagements in a total of at least 23 corporate entities.A majority of these […]

Duterte, Sara, Paolo mark big spikes
in wealth, cash, while in public office

By Floreen Simon and Malou Mangahas IN THE May 2019 elections, not just two but all three children of President Rodrigo R. Duterte by estranged spouse Elizabeth A. Zimmerman are running. But unlike those of many other candidates, their clan coffers won’t be running empty. In fact, these are probably going to end up largely […]

Law firm not registered, some biz interests
not disclosed, lender gets deal to import rice

By Malou Mangahas and Floreen Simon RICH MAN, poor man, Mayor, President. Back in 15thcentury England, this was how a traditional nursery rhyme and fortune-telling game ran. Later in the United States, it became a popular counting song of children playing tag as they called out who would be “it.” In the Philippines today, it […]

Voters, winners, regions, towns, cities:
Data, stats on PH elections since 2004

WHO have run for senator and won in the last five elections since 2004?As of the May 2016 elections, how many of the registered voters actually voted, and in which provinces, towns, and cities of the country? How many are women, how many men? How big, how small, are our voters, by age group? How […]

Money and the May 2019 Elections

PCIJ Audit: Candidates on Social Media

A “PROMOTIONAL TOUCHPOINT.” That, in advertising and PR parlance, is what social media apparently looks like to candidates for senator in the May 2019 elections, and they have been using it as such even ahead of the official 90-day campaign period, which started last Tuesday.Because the use — and even abuse — of social media […]

Money and the May 2019 Elections

P2.4-B pre-campaign ads: Bong Go,
Marcos, Roxas, Roque top spenders

TO THE last, they have pledged to fight poverty and corruption, promote health and education, protect the environment, and serve the poor who make up a majority of over 60 million registered voters.Yet while politics may divide them, money, apparent access to state funds and facilities, and donations from private pockets and public coffers that […]

Can 'privacy' trump transparency?

SALNs to impeach CJ, other execs
but Palace redacts Cabinet SALNs

A CHIEF JUSTICE was impeached in 2012 for failure to declare the true and detailed list of condo units he owned, and pesos and dollars he had in banks.Ten years prior, a President was forced out of the Palace for collecting millions in kickbacks and commissions from state contracts and excise taxes, as well as […]

SALNs of Cabinet members:
An epidemic of redactions

MORE THAN a year after President Rodrigo R. Duterte signed the Freedom of Information executive order, a practice completely reverse of the policy has been creeping onto some documents requested by the public. The likely tool for the unexpected move: a black marker.Redactions on items declared by Cabinet officials in their Statements of Assets, Liabilities, […]

Unexplained wealth, redacted?

TO REDACT or not to redact. Which could avoid or attract scrutiny and censure?Redactions are not the only issue that could arise if public officials would shade or black out the true, detailed, and complete facts of their wealth.Big and small discrepancies in the content of SALNs they have filed across periods of time could […]

Sad stats on women and children

THE MAGNA CARTA OF WOMEN, or Republic Act No. 9710, passed into law on August 14, 2009, or over eight years ago. It affirmed the role of women in nation-building, assured the “substantive equality” of women and men, and declared as state policies the empowerment of women, providing them equal access to resources and development […]

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