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Fact: When Sara Duterte threw an international tantrum in November 2024 that she had hired a hitman to kill the Marcos couple, bloggers and social media personalities were present in the Zoom meet-up, as is the Duterte style of press conferences. One of them goes by the handle Princess Maui (real name Maui Vega Melanio), a deeply entrenched Duterte Diehard Supporter whose other alias is Princess DDS.

Week 2 of Vice President Sara Duterte Impeachment Trial If the first week of Vice President Sara Duterte’s impeachment trial was defined by procedural wrangling and a frustratingly slow pace, the second week finally offered something more substantial: a glimpse of how both camps intend to win, and how the Senate impeachment court itself could determine the credibility of the entire process.

Chinese scholars claimed during a symposium two weeks ago in a university in Guangzhou that the Batanes Group of Islands is a natural geographic extension of Taiwan, and therefore a part of China’s territory. This claim triggered a frenzy of response from Manila, particularly among government officials, academics, and in the media. It is obviously a trial balloon launched by the Chinese Communist Party for its own ends. The drivers for this ridiculous claim are fairly obvious.

Several Facebook users posted a video claiming to show fugitive senator Bato Dela Rosa attending a rally held by members of Iglesia ni Cristo in early July. This is false. The 32-second clip was published by different pro-Duterte FB accounts and pages the same day the protests were held from July 1 to 2.

PAG-ASA ISLAND — Residents of this brave, little island welcomed the visit of Defense Secretary Gilberto Teodoro Jr. and top officials from the military’s Western Command Sunday to join them in celebrating 10 years that China’s claim over most of South China Sea was invalidated by the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague. Twenty-nine-year-old Kathleen Acosta, a grade school teacher said it means a lot to them that government officials come despite the distance.

On taking up the rotating chair of the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) at the start of 2026, the Philippines declared that its top priority would be the South China Sea. Its plan was to conclude a Code of Conduct, with the aim of averting conflict in these heavily contested waters by upholding international law and insisting on the peaceful resolution of disputes. Manila knew this task would not be easy.

Alan Peter Cayetano, a senator judge but who sounded like he was lawyering for the defense, tried in vain to make the expert witness admit that the threat was conditional. The witness was placid: he said the threat was absolute. Cayetano having failed that, defense lawyer Carlo Narvasa tried to break the expert witness’s testimony on the third day of the Sara Duterte impeachment trial.

Vice President Sara Duterte’s lawyers on Wednesday claimed House prosecutors had weakened their own case under Article IV of the impeachment complaint after acknowledging that her controversial Nov. 23, 2024 statements did not prove she had actually hired an assassin to kill President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. The prosecution, on the other hand, maintained that the remarks themselves constituted betrayal of public trust and a culpable violation of the Constitution.

Defense Secretary Gilberto Teodoro Jr. warned that  Chinese scholars’ claim of  Batanes, the Philippines’ northernmost province, as part of China is a prelude to its wider maritime ambitions.

I was transacting some matters at a commercial shop in a Mediterranean city when an OFW lady came in. Her mobile phone was on loud mode – she was listening to the first day of the Sara Duterte impeachment trial. And yet it was only the first day and the listener was somewhere in Europe. The sign was more than eloquent – there will be a massive following of the trial by Filipinos from any side of the political divide,  and from all walks of Pinoy life worldwide because of social media.