Editorial 3/9/16 (Philippines, elections, Grace Poe, vote buying, women's rights, solar energy, North Korea, sanction)

Philippine Star "Preventing vote buying"

Reversing the Commission on Elections again, the Supreme Court yesterday granted a petition to issue receipts for the automated voting. The unanimous SC vote ordered the Comelec to enable the voter verified paper audit trail or VVPAT feature of the vote counting machines. The decision has raised concern that vote-buying politicians will again have a way of verifying if they are getting what they paid for through receipts. [full text]

Sun.Star Cebu "Game-changer?"

WHAT an eventful International Women’s Day it turned out to be for Sen. Grace Poe. Voting 9-6, the Supreme Court En Banc reversed yesterday a decision of the Commission on Elections (Comelec) and allowed her to run for the presidency. For voters, the decision offers the chance of greater clarity. With Poe firmly in the saddle, and with much of the speculative melodrama from her disqualification cases now set aside, voters can more clinically assess her credentials and her preparation, and decide if this most crucial of games should, less than nine weeks from now, go her way. [full text]

Mindanao Times "Include Women in the Agenda!"

THE ONLY way to advance human condition is to ensure that no one is left behind—and this includes women and girls. As we celebrate the International Women’s Day (IWD), the Philippine Commission on Women (PCW), the lead agency that makes government work for the promotion of women’s empowerment, women’s human rights and gender equality, is calling both private and public sectors to always include women in the agenda. This means including “Juana” in planning, implementing, consultation, and decision-making processes where she can actively and meaningfully participate in and benefit from overall development. [full text]

Manila Bulletin "And now, solar power"

Geothermal plants have been operating for years in Albay, Leyte, Negros, and Mindanao. As of 2010, the Philippines was second only to the United States in geothermal power with 1,909 megawatts from these plants. Last week, officials of the Renewable Energy Management Bureau of the Department of Energy announced they have discovered potential sites for low-enthalpy geothermal projects on Camiguin Island which has seven volcanoes. Wind, solar, biomass, hydro, geothermal, ocean energy – we have these in abundance in our sunny island country and.with the incentives provided by the Renewable Energy Act enacted by Congress in 2008, we are taking decisive steps to develop these energy sources. Most of the country’s energy needs is still provided today by fossil fuels which pollute the atmosphere and contribute to global warming – coal, 33 percent; oil, 18 percent; and natural gas, 17 percent. [full text]

Inquirer "First strike"

Hardly anyone saw this coming, but three days after the UN Security Council voted overwhelmingly to impose stricter sanctions on North Korea, the Philippines became the first member of the international community to enforce those sanctions—by impounding a North Korean cargo vessel newly docked in Subic Bay on Saturday. The new set of sanctions is sweeping in scope; more importantly, they were introduced jointly by the United States and China, North Korea’s principal ally, and supported almost unanimously by UN members, including all five permanent members of the Security Council. The sanctions aim to punish North Korea for arranging a nuclear test in January and for testing a ballistic missile system in February. [full page]