Daily News Highlights – May 8, 2016 Edition

Before a massive crowd of half a million at Luneta, presidential front runner Rodrigo Duterte called for national unity and pledged to seek peace with Muslim guerrillas advocating independence. The Davao City mayor once again demonstrated his crowd-drawing power as hundreds of thousands of supporters descended upon the iconic park, who also cleaned up and threw away their trash after the rally. He accused President Benigno Aquino III and his candidate Manuel “Mar” Roxas II of attempting to perpetuate themselves in power and fomenting division when they made a last-minute call to coalesce with other candidates against Duterte.

Read the full story on Rappler.

Watch the miting de avance on Rappler. 

An intense and vicious presidential campaign ended on May 7 in grand rallies in Metro Manila where bets made one final plea for votes. Front runner Rodrigo Duterte awed the nation with a huge crowd at the Luneta. Senator Grace Poe returned to Plaza Miranda in Quiapo, where she once held an impromptu rally after the Supreme Court issued a verdict allowing her to run. Administration candidate Manuel “Mar” Roxas II spoke before a sea of yellow at the Quezon City Memorial Circle, in a rally also attended by President Benigno Aquino III. Vice President Jejomar Binay chose to hold his miting de avance in his bailiwick, Makati, while Senator Miriam Defensor Santiago made a brief appearance before a street party of supporters in Quezon City.

Watch Rappler’s miting de avance coverage on Rappler. 

Read Poe’s speech on Rappler.

Read Roxas’ speech on Rappler. 

Read Binay’s speech on Rappler. 

Watch Santiago’s speech on Rappler.

You’re not allowed to drink liquor from May 8 to 9, the Commission on Elections (Comelec) said. If you do, you can go to jail. The Philippines is holding presidential elections on May 9, and the liquor ban begins a day before people troop to polling precincts.

“It shall be unlawful for any person, including owners and managers of hotels, resorts, restaurants, and other establishments of the same nature to sell, furnish, offer, buy, serve, or take intoxicating liquor anywhere in the Philippines,” the Comelec said in Resolution 10095 promulgated on Thursday, April 14. There’s an exemption, though: foreign tourists can drink in certain places from May 8 to 9.

Read the full story on Rappler. 

Read the list of prohibitions on Rappler. 

Read your guide to the 2016 Philippine elections on Rappler.

Beginning Monday evening, May 9, votes will be counted and unofficial counts will be available for the public to view as soon as the data transmissions go live. On Rappler, you’ll be able to view election results as soon as they become available, from national to local positions. You can also see how the votes were transmitted over time and embed a particular results page on your own website or blog. 

View and follow real-time election results on Rappler.

Read the full story on the results page on Rappler.

In what seemed to be a desperate move, President Benigno Aquino III on May 6 called on the rivals of presidential candidate Rodrigo Duterte to unite against the Davao mayor and ensure his defeat. His own candidate, Manuel “Mar” Roxas II himself made a public pitch for it, to no avail. Grace Poe rejected the overtures outright. It’s the second failed attempt of Aquino to bring together Roxas and Poe. 

Read the full story on Rappler. 

Read an Inside Track story on Rappler. 

While the automated elections have reduced avenues for cheating, there are more incidents of vote buying now than in the 2010 presidential elections, according to former Comelec commissioner Gregorio Larrazabal.  “It’s getting crazy. There’s more vote buying now and I think it’s getting to a point that people accept vote buying now in some areas.” This is more on the local level, he added. Vote buying would continue for as long as there is collusion between candidates and the people manning the polling precincts, he added. Rappler’s #PHVoteWatch has monitored these incidents.

Read the full story on Rappler. 

Read reports on vote-buying and other election rule violations on Rappler.

North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un told a rare ruling party congress that the country would only use its nuclear weapons if its sovereignty came under threat from another nuclear power. Kim also promised that the North would follow a policy of non-proliferation, and said Pyongyang was willing to improve and normalize relations with countries that had been “hostile” in the past. Pyongyang tested a hydrogen bomb in January 2016. It was the North’s fourth nuclear test, and there are growing signs that a fifth test could be imminent.

Read the full story on Rappler.

The whistleblower behind the leak of documents known as the Panama Papers released a manifesto announcing his willingness to help law enforcers in prosecuting money launderers and tax evaders. But he made one condition: Only if he is free from punishment. Going by the pseudonym John Doe, the whistle-blower said thousands of prosecutions could stem from the Panama Papers if only law enforcers could access and evaluate the actual documents. The International Consortium of Investigative Journalists  and its partner publications have declined to provide the archive of 11.5 million documents to law enforcement officials.

Read the full story on Rappler. 

Philippine aviation authorities confirmed that the helicopter that crashed in Sarawak, Malaysia, is registered to a Philippine firm, GCA Skyline Aviation Inc., based in Cebu. The helicopter was ferrying Malaysian deputy minister Noriah Kasnon, her husband Asmuni Abdullah and parliament member Wan Mohammad Khair-il Anuar Wan Ahmad from the state’s interior to the state capital Kuching when it went missing on May 5.

Read the full story on Rappler. 

Speaking to Deadline, Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige replied to a question as to which of the side characters in the Marvel Cinematic Universe could headline a movie. She said that of the key Marvel characters, they’re committed to doing a movie on Black Widow. Natasha Romanoff aka Black Widow, in the cinematic universe, is a former Soviet spy and assassin-turned-SHIELD agent. She is played by actress Scarlett Johansson and first appeared in Iron Man 2 (2010) and recently, in Captain America: Civil War.

Read the full story on Rappler.