The Commission on Elections (Comelec) approved on Tuesday, April 12, an unprecedented rule that allows voters to get replacement ballots if, through no fault of their own, vote-counting machines (VCMs) reject their original ballots.

No less than Comelec Commissioner Christian Lim – who practically runs the 2016 elections as its steering committee head – rejected this rule. The rule, former Comelec Commissioner Gregorio Larrazabal said, could rob people of their right to vote if the Comelec runs out of ballots.

Read why on Rappler.

Japan and Ecuador are rattled by strong earthquakes over the weekend, leaving dozens dead. 

In Japan, scores of people were feared buried alive on Saturday, April 16, after two powerful quakes hit southern Japan a day apart, killing at least 35 people, as a forecast storm threatened more devastating landslides.

Meanwhile, at least 28 people were killed by a strong 7.8-magnitude earthquake that struck northwestern Ecuador on Saturday, April 16. The quake sent high-rises swaying in the country’s biggest city of Guayaquil and knocking out power in much of the capital Quito, authorities said.

Read more on Rappler.

Declaring “we are all migrants,” Pope Francis visited the Greek island of Lesbos on Saturday, April 16, with a message of hope for those seeking asylum in Europe, 12 of whom he took home with him to the Vatican.

His one-day trip to Europe’s migration hotspot culminated dramatically when 3 Syrian refugee families, all Muslim, returned with the pontiff to Rome. The pope told reporters that his gesture was “a drop in the ocean” but hoped that afterwards, “the ocean will never be the same again”.

Agence France-Presse has the details.

Money sent home by overseas Filipinos (OFWs) continued to grow in 2016, rising by 9% compared to last year to reach $2.3 billion in February, buoyed by the steady rise in transfers from land-based OFWs with long-term work contracts.

The result means that on a year-to-date basis, remittances for the first two months of the year increased by 6.1% to $4.6 billion from $4.3 billion recorded in the same period last year, Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) officer-in-charge Diwa Guinigundo announced on Friday, April 15.

Read more on Rappler.

National Capital Region maintained its powerhouse status in youth sports as they clinched a 12th straight overall championship in the 2016 Palarong Pambansa in Albay.

NCR, champions since 2005, ran away with the title once again with a final medal tally of 104 golds, 57 silvers, and 48 bronzes, according to the Department of Education’s final and official result on Saturday, April 16.

Read the details, and see how the country’s 18 regions fared, on Rappler.

Diversified conglomerate San Miguel Corporation (SMC) has formed SMC Mass Rail Transit 7 (MRT7) Incorporated, a P10-billion ($216.47-million) company that will hold its controlling interest in the P63-billion ($1.36-billion) MRT7 project.

Last February, San Miguel said it is ready to start the construction of the MRT7, after completing the funding package of the project, 7 years after the original proposal was presented.

Read more on Rappler Business. 

For the vice presidential debate on April 10, a smaller but engaged crowd on Twitter weighed in with humor and social insights.

SENTi analyzed over 150,0000 tweets from Twitter during the debate, a noticeably smaller than the 1 million tweets generated by the last presidential debate on March 20.

Find out the results of their analysis, and stay tuned for coverage of the next vice presidential debate on Rappler.

Prince William and his wife Kate arrived at the Taj Mahal Saturday, April 16, wrapping up their week-long trip to India and Bhutan with a visit that carries poignant echoes for Britain’s royal family.

The royal couple posed for a photo on the famous “Diana bench” in front of the monument, where the late Princess Diana was photographed sitting alone outside the tragic monument to love in 1992 – a photo that sparked much media speculation and later became a symbol of her failing marriage.

See the photos on Rappler. 

Pia Wurtzbach is set to crown her Binibining Pilipinas successor on Sunday, April 17, and she’s invited her friends from Miss Universe 2015 to watch. Miss USA and Miss Universe 2nd runner-up Olivia Jordan arrived in the Philippines on Saturday, while Miss Malaysia Vanessa Tevi Kumares and Miss Myanmar May Thaw arrived a day before.

Forty ladies will battle it out for the 6 crowns at stake at Binibining Pilipinas 2016, which will be held at the Smart Araneta Coliseum. This year, the girls will be crowned Miss Universe Philippines, Bb Pilipinas – Globe, Bb Pilipinas – Grand International, Bb Pilipinas – Intercontinental, Bb Pilipinas – International, and Bb Pilipinas – Supranational.

Read more about the Miss Universe beauties’ Philippine adventures, and bookmark the live blog, on Rappler.

The Solar Impulse 2 sun-powered plane is set to resume its record-breaking flight around the world within days, leaving Hawaii when weather permits, a spokesman said Friday, April 15.

The plane has been in Hawaii since July, putting its round-the-world trip to a pause so the plane could be repaired.

Read more from Agence France-Presse