MANILA, Philippines – The Commission on Elections (Comelec) was grilled at the Senate Wednesday over the reported glitches that marred the operations of the Precinct Count Optical Scan (PCOS) machines during a recent mock election.
The joint congressional oversight committee on automated election system, headed by Senator Alan Peter Cayetano, questioned poll officials why some of the ballots were spewed out by the optical machines.
Poll executive director Jose Tolentino Jr. blamed incorrect feeding of the ballots into the machine by some participants of the mock election.
Comelec Chairman Sixto Brillantes Jr. said that improper insertion of the ballot causes folding or crumpling of the ballot.
He said that may explain why some of the security features of the ballot were altered.

MANILA, Philippines—The Supreme Court on Tuesday extended indefinitely its order suspending the implementation of the cybercrime law, which would penalize with imprisonment offensive posts on Twitter, Facebook and other social networking sites and which critics said would violate the constitutional guarantee of freedom of expression.
The court ruling came a day before Congress adjourns for the election without the House of Representatives acting on the long-pending proposed Freedom of Information Act, regarded as the foundation of any democratic state conscious of the people’s right to know. This means the bill is again dead in the water and will be back to square one in the new Congress.

Filipinos were the most optimistic consumers in Southeast Asia and the second most optimistic in the world, defying a broad global decline in confidence during the fourth quarter of 2012, according to an international polling firm.
Market research specialist Nielsen said Tuesday that Philippine consumer confidence stood at an index of 119 in the final quarter of last year, representing a one-point increase from the previous quarter. More importantly, across the 58 countries Nielsen measured for the period, confidence declined in 33 countries, remained flat in six countries and increased in 19 countries from the prior quarter.

Due to scant broadband frequencies, the government plans to harness unused Television channels - White Space (TVWS) or ''Super Wi-Fi'' - nationwide within 3 years to connect rural areas, schools and also for health, disaster migration, e-services and e-business.

Between them, Metro Manila and Cebu have 18 unused channels, with 46 percent of spectrum wasted.

Davao has 62 percent TV White space with 24 unused channels and the country's rural areas have a total of 24-31 unused channels, or 62-80 percent TV White Space.

''When you turn on your TV to these unused channels, the set displays ''white noise'' resembling snow, with a hissing sound,'' according to Louis Napoleon C. Casambre Executive Director, Information and Communications Technology Office of the Department of Science and Technology (DOST-ICTO) in a press briefing Friday.

Does the Philippines really need another national flower?
Senators think so as they approved on third and final reading a bill that declares the Waling-waling orchid as a national flower apart from Sampaguita Monday.

Outgoing Senator Edgardo Angara, who sponsored the measure in the Senate said the bill will remind Filipinos about its natural beauty, one that is admired all over the world.