The judges' threat to stage a "revolt" and resign is not just a reaction to poor priorities set in the national budget. It is indicative of dissatisfaction that has started to build up against a wavering and compromising presidential leadership and at slim prospects of seeing reform being undertaken under Aquino III.

The threat of a judicial revolt against the administration's failure to earmark a decent budget for the judiciary unveils a creeping dissatisfaction from several sectors in the country today. This dissatisfaction springs not only from a lack of administrative response to age-old problems besetting state institutions of which the judiciary is just one but also the widening gap between promises made by Benigno S. Aquino III and the actions - or blunders - that have been done since he became the nation's 15th President 78 days ago.

It is shocking how a single hostage-taking incident has shook the country and exposed its problems and vulnerabilities, as well as the ineptness of government and police officials. The late Senior Police Inspector Rolando Mendoza merely wanted to clear his name of corruption charges - by using unarguably condemnable means - but he ended up exposing the nation.

MANILA - President Benigno Aquino III was quoted last week complaining that he is not being given a "honeymoon" by the media as criticisms are starting to come his way. The very first executive order of his administration received flak for being legally inappropriate; the conflicts of interest in his appointments such as that of Transportation Secretary Jose de Jesus, Public Works Secretary Rogelio Singson and Energy Secretary Jose Rene Almendras immediately landed in the news. Public Works Sec.

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.