Gay Iceland

Don’t look now but Iceland’s Prime Minister – Johanna Sigurdardottir – just up and married her longtime partner. Apparently, around those parts, they’re a heck of a lot more tolerant of gays and lesbians. According to the report: “There is some kind of passion for social justice here,” respected cross-dressing Swedish lawmaker Fredrick Federley said. […]

Null votes

For some reason, I felt the need to write about null votes. Again. The concept of the “null vote” came about as part of the explanation why apparently more people voted for President than voted for Vice President. There are two basic explanations for the existence of null votes. First, the votes of people who […]

Charter change

It’s pretty sad that amending the Constitution is always equated with the desire to tinker with it purely for personal advantage – like term limit extensions. It’s even more saddening when people who have advocated charter change in the past suddenly cry bloody murder when someone else proposes it. The thing is, there ought to […]

New Cabinet

The new President names his Cabinet: Paquito Ochoa Jr. – Executive Secretary Alberto G. Romulo – Department of Foreign Affairs Proceso Alcala – Department of Agriculture (update 10/18) Butch Abad – Department of Budget and Management Armin Luistro – Department of Education Rene Almendras – Department of Energy Ramon Paje – Department of Environment and […]

The sudden rain

On my way back to the office from a forum in Manila, the rain started pouring. It was the kind of sudden rain that takes you by surprise and leaves you wondering where summer went. I feel especially bummed out ‘coz the coming of the rains might mean that I’ll never get the chance to […]

Banat vs. COMELEC

Considering pronouncements made by some PL groups about their <a href=”http://www.philstar.com/Article.aspx?articleId=588397&amp;publicationSubCategoryId=63″ target=”_blank”>proclamations</a>, it would be interesting to know the jurisprudence that forms the basis for how winners are determined in the PL system. And so, presenting … (drumroll) … <a href=”http://sc.judiciary.gov.ph/jurisprudence/2009/april2009/179271.htm” target=”_blank”>Banat v. COMELEC!</a> A bit of background. The PL Law says that parties, organizations, […]