Matt and Kristin in the Philippines

MANILA, Philippines -- An ally of speakership challenger Cebu Rep. Pablo Garcia on Thursday asked incumbent Speaker Jose De Venecia to address a reported growing clamor for the incoming House of Representatives to choose its leader through secret balloting.

MANILA, Philippines -- How much of taxpayers’ money is used to enact one law?

MANILA, Philippines -- Whodunit? Who placed and paid for the full-page advertisements -- “Erap, Guilty or Not Guilty? Kailangan Bang May Gulo?” -- in leading newspapers, including the Philippine Daily Inquirer?

MANILA, Philippines -- Where’s proof of life? This was the question raised by the Italian lawmaker, who arrived in Manila Thursday for talks with Philippine authorities on efforts to secure the release of kidnapped Italian priest Giancarlo Bossi.

MANILA, Philippines -- The election returns for which Maguindanao schools district supervisor Musa Dimasidsing spilled his blood arrived Thursday at the Commission on Elections headquarters in Intramuros, Manila.

MANILA, Philippines -- It may seem like the Malacañang-sponsored Mindanao Peace and Security Summit will steal the thunder from the Supreme Court’s own summit on extrajudicial killings and forced disappearances, but Chief Justice Reynato Puno does not believe so.

MANILA, Philippines -- Military and Malacañang officials Thursday allayed fears that authorities would abuse the Human Security Act (HSA), especially its provisions on wiretapping, which they said would be used only against enemies of the state.

MANILA, Philippines -- Making a complete turnaround vis-à-vis the man he once accused of “betraying the public trust,” former Vice President Teofisto Guingona Jr. Thursday joined Joseph Estrada’s supporters in denouncing a supposed “Malacañang plot” to have the ousted President convicted of plunder by the Sandiganbayan

MANILA, Philippines -- A unit within the Intelligence Service of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (ISAFP) is responsible for the disappearance of activist Jonas Burgos, according to an intelligence agent.

MANILA, Philippines -- There were a total of 299 casualties in the May 14 local elections this year, statistics from the Philippine National Police (PNP) said.

MANILA, Philippines -- Malacañang on Wednesday said it will survive an acquittal of jailed President Joseph Estrada from the plunder charges that were the basis for the Edsa People Power II event that propelled President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo to power six years ago.

MANILA, Philippines -- President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo has approved the dismissal of 54 junior military officers implicated in the failed July 2003 Oakwood mutiny, the military said Wednesday.

MANILA, Philippines -- Genuine Opposition senatorial candidate Aquilino “Koko” Pimentel III on Wednesday asked the Supreme Court to stop the Commission on Elections from proclaiming the 12th winning senator.

Election Commissioner Nicodemo Ferrer on Wednesday denied accusations by church-based election volunteers that the Commission on Elections was giving Lintang Bedol “kid-glove treatment,” announcing that the suspended Maguindanao election supervisor could possibly be slapped with additional charges.

Justice Secretary Raul Gonzalez Wednesday said the antiterrorism law allowed the wiretapping of everybody, including journalists, if they were terror suspects, but a Roman Catholic bishop warned of “greater tumult” if the law was abused and applied indiscriminately to those opposed to the Arroyo administration.

Saying public good can prevail over the right to property, the Supreme Court has dismissed a petition questioning the constitutionality of a provision in the Expanded Senior Citizens Act of 2003 giving persons aged 60 and older a 20-percent discount in purchasing medicines and paying for certain services.

MANILA, Philippines -- It is meant to be a word of respect. Yet some people seem to think they can also use it to wiggle out of trouble. Maguindanao election supervisor Lintang Bedol is now claiming he was misquoted by the media on the number of guns he owns.

MANILA, Philippines -- The poll monitoring body Bantay Eleksyon gave the Commission on Elections a failing grade in the last elections, citing “unacceptable delays” in canvassing, incidents of violence, and numerous proclamation protests in an assessment report released on Tuesday.

MANILA, Philippines -- The Army was now looking into the possibility that elements from the Left could be behind the abduction of peasant activist Jonas Joseph Burgos.

MANILA, Philippines -- The rift in the opposition in the Senate has broken wide open.