Malacanang announces election liquor ban from May 9 to 13

The Aquino government has released in the internet an infographic regarding the election liquor ban for the May 13 national and local elections, a Palace official said on Tuesday.

Deputy Presidential Spokesperson Abigail Valte said during the regular press briefing in Malacanang on Tuesday that the government encouraged the people to visit the Official Gazette website through http://www.gov.ph to get information regarding the election liquor ban that will take effect on May 9 (12 a.m.) until May 13 (11:59 p.m.) this year.

"It’s a short public service information that can be found on the Official Gazette about certain things that everybody should know about the liquor ban, which is in place in connection with the elections on Monday," Valte said.

The Philippine National Police will be strictly implementing the nationwide liquor ban imposed by the Commission on Elections.

Under Section 261 of the Omnibus Election Code, it is prohibited for any person to sell, furnish, offer, buy, serve or take intoxicating liquor during the liquor ban period, but hotels and other establishments certified by the government as “tourist-oriented” may be exempted from the ban.

The law also provides that drinking alcoholic beverages within private property is allowed. Foreign tourists may take alcoholic beverages in exempted establishments.

Intellectual Property Office vows to step up anti-piracy and anti-counterfeiting efforts

The Intellectual Property Office of the Philippines (IPOPHIL) has vowed to “work harder” in its quest to end piracy and counterfeiting in order to remove the country from the United States Trade Representative piracy watch list.

In a statement, IPOPHIL Director General Ricardo Blancaflor vowed “vigorous efforts” to address the strict enforcement of the intellectual property rights by the law enforcement agencies of IPRs in the country.

He said “law enforcement agencies involved in IPR work…will work harder in fighting piracy and counterfeiting,” Blancaflor said.

Blancaflor added IPOPHIL has been successful in addressing piracy and counterfeiting activities in the country with “a record breaking volume of seizures” two years ago and with the passing of the internet treaty law last March 22.

In its latest Special 301 Report, the Philippines was retained on the ordinary watch list of IPR violators due to Washington’s piracy concerns over the Internet.

IPOPHIL hopes that the Philippines will be removed by the USTR from the watch list after Washington’s conduct of an off-cycle review.

The National Committee on Intellectual Property Rights area confident that the additional requirements can be addressed in the immediate future,” Blancaflor said.

MSD and DOH go full circle for 6th Cervical Cancer Awareness Month

By Jorie C. Valcorza

CAGAYAN DE ORO CITY, May 6 (PIA) -- The Department of Health (DOH), in a public-private partnership with Merck Sharpe and Dohme (MSD) Philippines, is now on its sixth year of raising awareness and providing free cervical cancer screening programs nationwide.

For the sixth run of its Cervical Cancer Awareness Month (CCAM) activities this May, both the DOH and MSD are going beyond just screening. This year, the awareness is going full circle—from prevention to treatment.

Free screenings will be conducted for women aged 25-49 years old in all 58 DOH-retained hospitals nationwide.

Furthermore, a launch of an HPV registry for monitoring and evaluation of disease burden will also be included in this year’s CCAM, as well as the announcement of a PhilHealth Z benefit expansion to include cervical cancer.

The CCAM website, mahalagaka.com, will also be refreshed and updated to further awareness.

Vaccination, according to the DOH, will strongly be advocated during screening and throughout the entire month. (Shyla Reyes, PR Agency MSD-DOH/PIA10)

COMELEC presents voting process for 2013 Elections

CAGAYAN DE ORO, May 7 (PIA) -- Elections Officer Rainero Niese of Opol in Misamis Oriental introduced the new voting process for the May 13 elections this year during the “Ang Rehiyon Karon” radio program last April 26.

According to Niese, Comelec is hoping for a more organized election by implementing a new voting process to avoid any chaos similar to last year one which was caused by giving out of priority numbers to voters.

This time it will be a first come, first serve basis in a so called holding room adjacent to the voting room wherein voters get to seat on chairs with numbers which will serve as the priority number.

In order to officially vote, the voter’s index finger should be free of indelible ink so it will not be presumed that the person has already voted. Upon verifying that the person is a registered voter, his or her ballot will be checked and should pass the standards before placing it to a folder where the voter can then officially cast a vote.

Niese also stated that a ballot must be free from any writings or crumpled before the Chairman signs it.

While a voter shades the corresponding number of his or her candidate of choice to preserve the sanctity of the ballot, each voter should secure that nobody else sees it. In connection to this, no voter will be allowed to turn on their cellular phone inside the voting room to avoid taking pictures of the filled in ballots.

In case the Precinct Count Optical Scan (PCOS) machine rejects the ballot when the voter feeds it, a third member or a support staff will be available to check what error from the ballot the PCOS machine sees. If the same error happens, the ballot will be fed to the machine four more times in different directions until the ballot is finally accepted. If the machine still rejects the ballot for the fifth time, it will be marked rejected and the vote is considered invalid.

When it comes to security, Niese said that the machines are designed to accept ballots which are only designated in their respective precincts.

For illiterate voters, a trusted relative or person or even the members of the board in the precinct can assist in voting.

Voting will start and end at 7:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m. but if there will still be any voters who would like to vote after voting hours, COMELEC can extend until 12 midnight just to make sure everyone gets to vote. When voting day adjourns, the PCOS machine will automatically generate results and prints eight (8) copies for national results and the same for local results.

Through a transmission device, the results are sent in a text message form to the Municipal Board or City Board of Canvasses.

To answer the questions about security of the PCOS machine, Niese assures that the PCOS machine is a secured device and the one billion combination of encryption code that still needs to be interpreted will make it impossible for anybody to guess the password and try to copy or edit the results. (Jennica Rojas/RTP/PIA10)