Dateline Philippines

Comelec OKs 14 presidential bets; 3 for Senate

Friday, 20 November 2009 05:16 Anna Valmero/Inquirer.net

MANILA - Over 20 aspirants for the presidency and the Senate have filed their certificates of candidacies (CoC), including a “messiah,” a quantum physics professor, and a retired general.

But only 14 CoCs for president and three for senator were accepted by the Commission on Elections Friday at the start of the filing of candidacies.

Marcos party joins forces with Villar’s NP

Friday, 20 November 2009 05:13 Katherine Evangelista/Inquirer.net

MANILA - The opposition party Kilusang Bagong Lipunan (KBL), led by Ilocos Norte Representative (2nd District) Ferdinand "Bongbong" Marcos, Jr. sealed an alliance with the Nacionalista Party (NP) Friday.

Similar to a traditional wedding in the north, Marcos, only son of the late president Ferdinand Marcos, gave NP standard-bearer Senator Manuel Villar a salakot, a native headwear, after the formal signing of the agreement forging the alliance at the NP headquarters in Laurel House in Mandaluyong City.

UN alarmed by surge in HIV cases among RP youth

Friday, 20 November 2009 05:11 Jerry Esplanada/Inquirer.net

MANILA - Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) cases among the youth in the Philippines "have been increasing at an unprecedented rate," the United Nations representative office in Manila has warned.

"And while the country is still within the target of less than one percent of the population for HIV, the AIDS-causing virus, the rising number of HIV cases has become a cause for alarm," the UN office also said.

Pacquiao urged to use ties with Atienza vs. mining

Friday, 20 November 2009 05:09 Marlon Ramos/Inquirer.net

A group of Mangyan on a hunger strike greeted Filipino boxing superstar Manny Pacquiao when he arrived at the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) office in Quezon City on Friday.

“Manny, help us fight for our land,” the protesters shouted as the convoy of Pacquiao arrived at around 9:30 a.m.

New probe into Virgin Mary’s apparition in Lipa set

Thursday, 19 November 2009 09:13 Dona Pazzibugan/Inquirer.net

MANILA - Lipa Archbishop Ramon Arguelles has formed a new commission to revisit the series of apparitions of the Virgin Mary at the Carmel monastery in Lipa, Batangas, in 1948.

The commission was created in a decree that Arguelles issued on Nov. 12, the same day the archbishop issued another decree, formally lifting the 1951 Church ban against the public veneration of the image of the Our Lady, Mediatrix of All Grace, in Lipa.