A number of devastating storms have battered Batanes Island, but this
province still stands today. Located on the extreme northern edge of
the Philippines, Batanes is the least populated province but it
remains one of the most beautiful.
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Photo Credit: Flickr: jep
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Photo Credit: Flickr: 62822983@N04
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The Calaguas
is a group of islands in the province of Camarines Norte that includes 3
major islands and several minor islands. If you are looking to escape
the main islands you should head to Calaguas Island, which is one of the
lesser-known beaches in the Philippines. Campers and backpackers enjoy
the well-maintained powdery white sand beaches found here.
Camarines Norte is equally stunning, albeit more crowded, just like the other main islands–Vinzons and Paracale.
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Photo Credit: Flickr: natcastaritas
Photo Credit: iamtravelinglight.com
Photo Credit: Flickr: 119358449@N03
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Leaders
of the House of Representatives vowed to ensure the smooth canvassing
of votes for president and vice president this week, but also raised the
possibility of being hampered by the tight race for the vice
presidency.
The
Senate and the House are set to convene jointly on Wednesday as the
National Board of Canvassers (NBOC) to tally the votes for president and
vice president.
The
two chambers will resume session today and they are expected to adopt a
resolution calling for a joint session of Congress to act as NBOC.
After
the approval of the joint resolution, the Senate and the House are
expected to pass tomorrow the canvassing rules and appoint members of
the canvassing panel from the two chambers.
The
canvassing process is scheduled to start on Wednesday with the opening
of ballot boxes containing the certificates of canvass (COCs).
The Senate, for its part, has named its representatives to the NBOC.
Apart
from Senate President Franklin Drilon, Senators Aquilino Pimentel
III, Juan Edgardo Angara, Teofisto Guingona III, Loren Legarda, and
Paolo Benigno Aquino were nominated to represent the Senate in the NBOC,
which will convene on Tuesday.
Angara said some senators have met and agreed on the composition of the panel.
To
ensure impartiality and objectivity, Angara said those who ran for
president and vice-president were excluded: Senators Grace Poe, Miriam
Defensor-Santiago, Alan Peter Cayetano, Gregorio Honasan, Francis
Escudero and Antonio Trillanes IV.
Sen. Nancy Binay, daughter of Vice President Jejomar Binay who lost in the presidential race, was also not included.
Pimentel, president of PDP-Laban whose standard bearer was incoming president Rodrigo Duterte, was chosen to replace Cayetano.
Angara
said the Senate contingent will be led by the Senate president as
counterpart of the Speaker, supported by the majority leaders of both
chambers.
Since
Cayetano ran with Duterte as vice presidential candidate, he would not
be part of the Senate contingent as majority leader, Angara said.
Pimentel is the deputy.
“There
is no problem with Congressman Gonzales since he did not run for any
national elective position,” Angara said, referring to House Majority
Leader Mandaluyong City Rep. Neptali Gonzales II.
Gonzales,
for his part, said that while every effort will be made to speed up the
canvassing, it is also anticipating some delays owing to the close
fight between Camarines Sur Rep. Leni Robredo and Sen. Ferdinand Marcos
Jr. in the vice-presidential race.
“We’re not really sure how intense the battle for vice president will turn out,” Gonzales told dzBB.
“The
possible clash will be between those representing presumptive president
Rodrigo Duterte, who naturally want it (canvassing) to be faster, and
probably those in the vice- presidential race,” he said.
The
latest unofficial tally from the transparency servers of the Commission
on Elections showed Robredo leading Marcos by over 200,000 votes.
Last
week, Robredo’s camp claimed victory, saying even if she will get zero
votes from the remaining untallied voting precincts, the Liberal Party
bet will win by over 20,000 votes.
Marcos’ camp, however, alleged some form of fraud that allowed Robredo to overtake his lead.
Gonzales
pointed out that all of Duterte’s rivals, except Sen. Miriam
Defensor-Santiago, have conceded defeat, which should make the
canvassing of votes for president go on smoothly.
He
said this has a bearing on the canvassing of votes for vice president
as votes of the presidential and vice-presidential candidates will be
canvassed virtually simultaneously from each COC.
“For
example a COC from a province, there will be only one observation (by
members of the canvassing panel) on the COC after inspecting it. It
can’t be that there are differing observations on the vote for president
and vice president because it comes from only one COC,” he said.
Gonzales said the canvassing process would be continuous but there were no specific rules yet.
He recalled the 2010 canvassing where President Aquino was proclaimed on June 10.
The 16th Congress, which began on July 22, 2013, will adjourn sine die its third and last regular session on June 10.
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Social media has changed the landscape of the recently concluded Philippine elections, according to Twitter.
Pratiksha
Rao, head for media partnerships in Twitter Southeast Asia, said social
media, particularly Twitter, absolutely played a critical role in the
general election when over 35 million election tweets were sent since
the start of the year, of which over four million tweets came on
election day.
“First-time
voters accounted for one-third of the 50 million registered voters,
meaning that around 17 million votes were up for grabs and social media
is the best way to reach young Filipinos. That’s why we called this the
first-ever Twitter Election in the Philippines,” Rao told The STAR.
He
said one of the most important contributions of Twitter was that it was
used to provide more transparency and fairness for the general
election.
“The
beauty of Twitter is that Filipinos could see a wide range of political
views and comments about the candidates in order to make a more
informed voting decision. People come to Twitter for diversity. In
addition, people have been reporting voting irregularities via Twitter
using the #Sumbongko hashtag and Comelec has been responding in
real-time to address their concerns. In fact, one of the most retweeted
tweets on election day was a reply tweet from the Comelec spokesman to
investigate selfie photos with the ballot,” Rao said.
Twitter also saw the youth voice moved the election.
“For
example, many of the most shared tweets on election day came from young
Filipinos talking about the early election results. Even though they
only have several hundred followers, their tweets were retweeted several
thousand times, showing how any Filipino voice can be heard around the
world on Twitter, Rao said.
Because
so many young people were active on Twitter, the social media giant
created special election emojis for the presidential candidates and for
voting day to give the first-time voters a fun way to express themselves
on Twitter.
“Young
people loved the emoji designs, from the faces of the presidential
candidates to an inked voting finger, which increased engagement on our
platform especially for live conversations around the key moments during
the election,” he said.
Last
year, Twitter partnered with Comelec to get more Filipinos to
participate in the election process and join the election conversation
this year. The partnership focused on enabling Filipinos to get live
updates on the election, to connect with others for a wide variety of
political viewpoints and to express their thoughts and ideas about the
candidates and election campaigns.
“There’s
no doubt that Twitter contributed to the record voter turnout of over
80 percent on election day with over four million elections-related
tweets on that day alone,”Rao said.
Twitter also enabled the live conversations around the elections to give people the pulse of the nation.
“For
example, there were over five million tweets combined for the
presidential TV debates, showing how Filipinos loved watching TV and
tweeting about the candidates at the same time. Many user-generated
Twitter trends and hashtags were created during the live TV broadcasts,
from the #DuRiam hashtag when Duterte and Santiago hugged each other to
the #PilipinasDelate hashtag when the second debate started late.
Even
on election day, the Twitter conversation peaked at 5,600 tweets per
minute at 7:30 p.m. when the early election results came out and people
were discussing in real-time on Twitter.
He
said that on election day, Twitter saw that mentions of Binay started
strongly on Twitter but faded throughout the day, while mentions of
Duterte started slowly on Twitter but peaked at the end of the day.
“Twitter
is a reflection of society and the real-time nature of our platform is a
leading indicator of what Filipinos think about the candidates during
the election campaign and on voting day,” he said.
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China
expressed anger on Monday after a group of Filipino protesters landed
on a disputed Philippine-held island in the disputed South China Sea.
About
50 protesters, most of them students, reached Thitu island in the
Spratly archipelago on Saturday in a stand against what they say is
Beijing's creeping invasion of the Philippine exclusive economic zone,
said Eugenio Bito-onon, the island's mayor.
China
claims almost all the South China Sea, believed to have huge deposits
of oil and gas, through which about $5 trillion in ship-borne trade
passes every year. Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines, Taiwan and Vietnam
also have claims.
China
was "strongly dissatisfied" by what the Filipinos had done, Chinese
Foreign Ministry spokesman Lu Kang said, reiterating that China has
indisputable sovereignty over the Spratly islands.
"We
once again urge the Philippines to withdraw all its personnel and
facilities from the islands that it is illegally occupying, refrain from
actions that are detrimental to regional peace and stability and not
conducive to Sino-Philippines relations," Lu said.
Describing
their expedition as a "a patriotic voyage", the protesters, led by an
ex-marine captain, plan to camp on the island, which the Philippines
calls Pagasa, for three days in a symbolic act of defiance.
Government
and military officials had tried to prevent the group from sailing to
the disputed waters, citing security and safety reasons after a storm in
the South China Sea earlier this month.
The
Philippines was also concerned about China's reaction to trip as Manila
has been trying to calm tensions heightened by Beijing's rapid
expansion in the South China Sea - building seven artificial islands in
the disputed waters.
The Philippines has challenged Beijing before the arbitration court in The Hague, a case Beijing has not recognised.
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