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May 15-28, 2016 Vol. XXXIV No. 16
All-natural home and personal care and cosmetics company Human Nature recently kicked off Oceans Month with Human Nature Save Our Seas Coastival in San Juan, La Union. The event culminated with the creation of the "Save Our Seas" sand art by muralist and climate justice advocate AG Sano. The sand art measured over 180 meters long and followed the "leave no trace" principle – no paints, plastics, or any other materials were used to create it apart from sand, water and flat wood rakes. The event is an initiative of Human Nature in partnership with World Wide Fund for Nature, Save Philippine Seas, Coastal Underwater Resource Management Actions - Project CURMA and communitydriven eco-tourism movement La Union Soul. Photo courtesy of Human Nature
Is change really coming? With Duterte’s landslide win, the Philippines is set to welcome its first President from Mindanao
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n May 9th, Filipinos all over the world casted their vote for the 16th President of the Republic of the Philippines who will govern over 7,107 islands and look to change the course of the country in the next six years. Landslide victory The day after the polls closed, Davao City Mayor Rodrigo ‘Rody’ Duterte already pulled away with a commanding lead. As of May 11, almost 96 percent of votes have been transmitted to the Commission on Elections (COMELEC), including the tally from overseas absentee voters. As of writing, Duterte has gathered 15,911,228 votes according to the partial and unofficial tally from the Parish Pastoral Council for Responsible Voting (PPCRV). In second place is Liberal Party candidate Mar Roxas with 9,678,767 votes, while Senator Grace Poe is in third place with 8,929,294 votes. Both Roxas and Poe have conceded the Presidency
to Duterte and joined Duterte’s call for unity to “let the healing begin.” With only five percent of the total votes yet to be counted, Duterte has already surpassed incumbent President Benigno Aquino III’s record for the most number of votes in history by over 700,000 votes. Aquino received 15,208,678 votes in the 2010 presidential elections. Before the elections, National Artist for Literature F. Sionil Jose wrote that Duterte’s “victory will be brought about by millions of Filipinos fed up with corruption at all levels of our society, and frustrated that the gains of the Aquino administration do not translate into their improved welfare and safety. The Duterte vote is the voice of angry Filipinos.” And with that, the call for change really did come. Upon receiving the overwhelming results of the polls, Duterte made his way to his parents’ grave at 3 a.m. on May 10, where he openly wept. He reportedly prayed and asked
By CHING DEE
for his parents to help him with his new task. Allegations of cheating While the Presidential race already has a clear winner, the Vice Presidential race is far from over. During the first few hours of the counting, Senator Ferdinand ‘Bongbong’ Marcos Jr. was leading the polls, with Liberal Party’s Leni Robredo in second place. But by the next day, people awoke with Robredo capturing the lead. As of writing, the partial and unofficial count from the PPCRV shows that Robredo has 13,988,939 and Marcos in close second with 13,774,268 votes. Surprised by the sudden upset, Marcos’ camp called for a stop of the counting to investigate the possibility of cheating. Marcos’ campaign adviser Jonathan dela Cruz was quoted in a Rappler report saying, “While the country is sleeping, we have seen a steep degree of page 2
What will the Aquino administration’s legacy be? By VIA BAROMA
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indsight frequently tends to be kinder and provides a less prejudiced perspective. And as President Benigno Aquino III officially goes through his last month as the 15th President of the Philippines, the nation begins to wonder what the last six years under his leadership has truly brought. Before closing the curtain on the Aquino term, how will the Filipino people remember the President? While the jury will continue to ponder whether the perceived economic gains are real, and whether his administration is solely to blame for the increasingly worsening traffic situation, here are some of the events during the past six years that could help define his legacy. Hostage-taking incident (Aug. 23, 2010) Barely two months after stepping into office, Aquino faced his first major crisis when the Luneta hostage-taking inpage 2 cident was mishandled and