MANILA, Philippines – They don’t like political dynasties but they can’t agree on how to define these.

Senators and resource persons clashed on the definition in a Senate hearing on a bill that seeks to ban political dynasties.

In the hearing of the Senate Electoral Reforms Committee on Thursday, November 8, Sen Sergio “Serge” Osmeña III proposed his definition of political dynasties. For Osmeña, if an incumbent local official’s relative runs for office and wins in another locality, this is not a political dynasty. The senator is a member of the Osmeña dynasty of Cebu.

MANILA, Philippines – In their heated debates on the party-list purge, Commission on Elections (Comelec) commissioners often find themselves grappling for basics. Who is “marginalized,” in the first place?

Comelec Chair Sixto Brillantes Jr on Thursday, November 8, admitted the poll body's difficulty in defining marginalized organizations as it screens party-list groups for the 2013 elections. In an interview after a Senate hearing on electoral reforms, Brillantes attributed this to a supposedly insufficient definition under Republic Act 7941 or the Party-List System Act.

MANILA, Philippines – Polling machines could have rejected 40% of sample ballots during an initial testing, but the National Printing Office (NPO) prefers to see this as part of birth pains.

NPO bids and awards committee head Sylvia Banda on Thursday, November 8, said the public shouldn't fear widespread rejection of ballots in the 2013 elections. In an interview on ANC, Banda allayed fears triggered by reports, including a Youtube video, of a ballot testing in September that saw precinct count optical scan (PCOS) machines accepting only 60% of sample ballots.

LA TRINIDAD, Benguet -- Governor Nestor Fongwan wants to empower farmers here so as not to lose them abroad.

Fongwan said the migration of farmers for greener pastures in other countries is a phenomenon encountered by the province with the fluctuating vegetable industry.

To address this, cooperativism is being strengthened as the vegetable industry is not as lucrative as before, the governor said.

MANILA, Philippines - It's a mix of veterans from the judiciary and the academe, the young and the old. And one of them will be the next Supreme Court associate justice.

The Judicial and Bar Council (JBC) on Wednesday, November 7 nominated to the post former UP Law Dean Marvic Leonen, former Energy Secretary Raphael "Popo" Lotilla, Court of Appeals Presiding Justice Andres Reyes, CA Justices Jose Reyes, Noel Tijam and Rosmari Carandang, and La Salle Law School Dean Jose Manuel Diokno.