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HOT, HOT, HOT. Without airconditioning, employees of the Bacolod City Comelec office have to buy mini-electric fans to cool themselves especially during the searing afternoon…

THE ONLY thing constant is change, supposedly, but apparently there are some things that remain the same. Yet another round of elections, for instance, will find Maguindanao still…

THEY BELONG to some of the most prominent political clans in central Mindanao, yet they are carving a path far removed from the mold of the traditional roles of their royal…

Last of Three Parts PRESIDENT BENIGNO Simeon C. Aquino III may have taken to publicly scolding septuagenarian Sulu Sultan Jamalul Kiram III over the latter’s role in the recent…

IN ONE of the many raids conducted by government troops on the Ampatuan properties after the 2009 Maguindanao massacre, investigators came across a black bag containing a bundle of…

Second of Three Parts FOR A PROVINCE that is turning only 40 years old this year, Maguindanao has managed to emerge as “the most governed,” if only by the number of governance…

(Link to full size version of this diagram) A SPIDER couldn’t have spun a more complicated network: the diagram before you shows blood and affinal lines that link the Ampatuans to…

First of Three Parts DATU HOFFER, Maguindanao — This municipality is just a kilometer or so from the capitol, but it barely looks like a town. Bereft of any paved roads, it has a…

HOW DO public officials with secret offshore accounts react, when found out? The PCIJ confronted a senator, a congressman, and two former government executives with questions about…

SENATOR MANUEL ‘Manny’ B. Villar Jr. and Congressman Joseph Victor ‘JV’ G. Ejercito belong to rival political coalitions jostling against each other in the run-up to the May 2013…

IN TEN out of the 13 Statements of Assets, Liabilities, and Net Worth (SALN) that she filed as member of Congress from June 1998 to June 2007, Ma. Imelda ‘Imee’ R. Marcos, eldest…

MARIA IMELDA Marcos Manotoc, the Princeton-educated eldest child of the late Philippine dictator Ferdinand Marcos and now a senior political figure in her own right, is beneficiary…

Dozens of journalists sifted through millions of leaked records and thousands of names to produce ICIJ’s investigation into offshore secrecy

The International Consortium of Investigative Journalists’ exploration of the secretive world of offshore companies and trusts began after a computer hard drive packed with…

The PCIJ is now accepting applications for its 2013 Summer Internship Program. The program is open to Filipino college students. Mass Communication, Communication Arts, Social…

IT’S election campaign season again and candidates have started to harangue voters with a barrage of promises of reforms. When he came to power in June 2010, President Benigno…

THE Open Budget Survey 2012 bears bad news about budget transparency in the Philippines, but the story seems more upbeat in the areas of budget oversight and public participation.

PARANG humihila ng bayawak sa lungga. (It’s like pulling a monitor lizard out of a pit.) This, according to former Senator Rene A.V. Saguisag, is how the Supreme Court has behaved…

IN PCIJ’s analysis, the biggest obstacles to achieving full transparency in the high court seem to be its top two officials: Chief Justice Ma. Lourdes P. A. Sereno and Associate…

EXACTLY A year ago today, on Dec. 12, 2011, President Benigno Simeon C. Aquino III marshaled votes from his Liberal Party and coalition allies in the House of Representatives to…

FOUR months of research, more than two dozen requests, and at least half a gigabyte of documents. That was what it took to produce this four-part series on the Statements of…