The Filipino people have waited for six and a half years for June 30 to come. The clamor for Arroyo to step down from power has been going on for eight long years.

It is now only less than a month before Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo leaves Malacañang and the Filipino people could not wait to get it over with. Despite the flak that the Commission on Elections and Smartmatic are getting for bungling the automated elections, and even if the old problems of vote-buying - which seems to have become more massive

The country has been holding elections for more than half a century and yet nothing seems to have substantially changed. Local elections are still being fought with guns, goons, and gold while national elections are nothing more than popularity contests. Proof of this is the fact that the top rankings in the senatorial race are populated by reelectionists and former senators making a comeback, the same old names.

The country is on the last leg of the presidential campaign but still, there is no indication as to how things would be different if any of the candidates bags the presidency. After suffering for nine years under the Arroyo administration - with the debilitating crisis, worsening joblessness and poverty, its outright puppetry to US interests, rampant corruption, and impunity in human rights violations - the Filipino people want change and an improvement in their lives. However, after two months of campaigning and with one month left till the elections, all the candidates for president have yet to give us an indication of the policy directions of his or her administration.

MANILA - The search warrant was highly irregular: it did not contain the correct name of the owner of the house and the list of items to be searched. There were clear violations of the detainees' rights. They were handcuffed and blindfolded for days and denied their right to counsel and visits. Before they were allowed visits, the military brought in a fiscal who conducted inquest proceedings even if the 43 health workers were not represented by their counsels.

MANILA - The decision of the second division of the Commission on Elections (Comelec) junking the disqualification case against former president Joseph Estrada makes the May 2010 elections a historical aberration. For the first time since the people's ouster of the Marcos dictatorship, a former president has been allowed to seek for the second time the highest position in the country.

MANILA - The Arroyo administration is, hopefully, about to end its term by the middle of next year. Lasting for nine years and a half, it is the longest-running presidency since the Marcos dictatorship. In fact, Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo is second only to Ferdinand E. Marcos who, for 20 years, held the reins of power the longest in the country's history.

Senator Chiz Escudero created quite a stir when he bolted from the Nationalist People's Coalition (NPC) at a time when he was almost certain to bag the party's nomination. But there are rumors that one of the reasons behind his decision was the alleged unwillingness of the "Boss" Eduardo 'Danding' Cojuangco to throw his full support, financially, to Escudero's campaign.

MANILA - Who believes the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) when it said that Corporal Guerrero Hannival Mosura Mondido of the Marines was not conducting surveillance but merely undergoing a training session on intelligence work when he was caught spying on the house of National Artist Bienvenido Lumbera at 6 a.m. of Sept. 17?