Rappler Newscast | May 1, 2013

Today on Rappler.

• 40 labor groups unite to endorse candidates for the Senate.
• A survey says most Filipinos have only chosen 7 out of 12 candidates for senator.
• COMELEC says automated ballot-counting machines are ok even if numbers don’t match a manual count.

Story 1: LABOR GROUPS ENDORSE 7 SENATORIAL BETS
40 labor groups march Wednesday to commemorate Labor Day and endorse 7 candidates for the Senate for the 2013 midterm polls.
This is the first time in 20 years that workers’ groups agree to support the same candidates.
In past elections, each labor group endorsed its favored bets.
The groups form the Nagkaisa coalition, endorsing Team PNoy candidates Risa Hontiveros, Jamby Madrigal, Alan Peter Cayetano, Loren Legarda, JV Ejercito of the United Nationalist Alliance, Bangon Pilipinas candidate Eddie Villanueva and independent candidate Ricardo Penson.
Except for Legarda, the candidates join the Labor Day march from España to Mendiola in Manila.
They also sign a manifesto with Nagkaisa, promising to file bills addressing the amendment of the EPIRA law, increasing minimum wage, and increasing budget allocation for basic services, among others.
The groups criticize President Benigno Aquino for denying to prioritize the security of tenure bill, saying it should be “tweaked” first.
Aquino says the current version of the bill would benefit only 1.8 million people, while an estimated 10 million Filipinos could lose their jobs.
But Hontiveros says a security of tenure law will not “damage the generation of jobs.”
Cayetano said the key is to find the “perfect balance” between security of tenure and getting investments for the country.

Story 2: SENATE RACE: FILIPINOS HAVE 7 BETS SO FAR
A Pulse Asia survey shows most Filipino voters have only chosen 7 of 12 candidates for Senate.
In February and March, most Filipinos named an average of 8 candidates.
The survey, conducted between April 20 to 22, shows only 27% of Filipinos decided on their Magic 12 with elections less than a month away.
NCR voters name an average of 7 preferred bets.
In the Cordillera Administrative Region, 56% of voters name a complete slate.

Story 3: UNA TO LP: IT AIN’T OVER. REMEMBER 2010?
The United Nationalist Alliance or UNA warns the administration against prematurely celebrating after Team PNoy candidates dominate the latest Pulse Asia survey.
The April survey shows an 11-5 combination for Team PNoy candidates, with only UNA’s JV Ejercito, Nancy Binay, Migz Zubiri, Gringo Honasan, and Jack Enrile making the list of 16 bets with a statistical chance of winning.
Responding to Team PNoy’s announcements celebrating the results, UNA campaign manager Toby Tiangco says the senatorial race is still –quote– “everybody’s ballgame.”
Tiangco also cites a 2010 press release, where then Liberal Party vice presidential bet Mar Roxas claimed victory based on survey results.
Roxas’ rival, Jejomar Binay, won the 2010 elections.
Tiangco says, “We are again amazed to see…LP celebrating their victory based on the surveys. Haven’t they learned their lesson in 2010?”

Story 4: KRIS AQUINO IS TEAM PNOY’S LAST WEAPON?
With 12 days before the midterm elections, Team PNoy is bringing out its trump card – presidential sister Kris Aquino.
Natashya Gutierrez reports.

In the homestretch, Team PNoy draws its final weapon: presidential sister and popular celebrity Kris Aquino.
At the coalition rally in Tarlac, the Aquinos’ home province, President Aquino endorses his slate to an enthusiastic crowd in Victoria City.
But is he really the best Aquino endorser?
On the sidelines, the talk of the town is none other than his younger sister, who has vowed to endorse at least 5 candidates of Team PNoy.
Sen Chiz Escudero and former censors chief Grace Poe will travel to Visayas and Mindanao with Kris this week.
Next week, she will join actress Sharon Cuneta and actor DingDong Dantes in Rock the Vote concerts in vote-rich cities across the country.
They will endorse presidential cousin Bam Aquino and former Akbayan Rep Risa Hontiveros.
Hontiveros, who trails in surveys, is grateful. She knows she can use Kris’ help.

RISA HONTIVEROS, TEAM PNOY SENATORIAL BET: Of course I’m happy Kris is helping.

Aurora Rep Sonny Angara, who has no planned appearances with Kris, expresses hope she too will endorse him, but says it is her right to choose who to endorse.
Most bets will also bring out their big guns in the final push to the finish line.
Angara will rally with teen idol Coco Martin in Cebu, while former Sen Jun Magsaysay will visit the same province but with actor Richard Yap or ‘Ser Chief.’

NATASHYA GUTIERREZ, REPORTING: Surveys reveal a tight Senate race with 16 probable winners for 12 seats. Most voters still have yet to decide on their Magic 12. With the strong influence of local celebrities on Filipino voters, last minute endorsements may very well spell the difference between a 12th and a 13th place finish.
Natashya Gutierrez. Rappler, Tarlac.

Story 5: MORE VOTE AUDITORS TO BE ASSIGNED IN 2013
The Commission on Elections will assign more auditors to manually count votes in select precincts after the automated midterm polls close on May 13.
Based on Comelec Resolution 9595, 5 members will compose the random manual audit team or RMAT in each legislative district, an increase from the 3 members assigned per legislative district in the 2010 elections.
There will be 1,165 manual auditors for 223 legislative districts.
Comelec designates an RMA committee, headed by Parish Pastoral Council for Responsible Voting head Henrietta de Villa and Comelec Commissioner Christian Lim.
The RMAT will manually count the ballot votes and see if the count corresponds to the election return tally from vote counting machines.
In the event of discrepancy, an allowable margin of 10 votes per candidate per position is granted.

Story 6: PCOS CLEARED OVER COUNTING MISMATCH
The Comelec deals with fears about the accuracy of the PCOS machines following the discrepancies with the manual audit after the mock elections.
Paterno Esmaquel reports.

The manual audit, after the mock elections, raises doubts over the accuracy of PCOS machines.
Discrepancies between the PCOS count and the manual audit exceed the accepted limit.
A committee finds 15 discrepancies while the Comelec allows only 10.
But a report by the audit committee says it’s not the fault of the PCOS. It blames the errors on human factors.
In a report noted by the Comelec on April 19, the random manual audit committee cites factors such as the auditors’ lack of experience and failure to follow instructions.
The report also blames what it calls “conditions that were far from conducive.”
These include humid weather, and lack of food and water for the auditors.
The committee says it did another audit of the mock election results.
The new audit shows zero discrepancies between the PCOS and manual counts.
An election citizens’ arm, the Namfrel, earlier criticizes the Comelec over the auditing mismatch during the mock elections.
In a letter to Comelec chair Sixto Brillantes, Namfrel says the “malfunctioning of PCOS machines will pose problems” on election day.
But Brillantes says the Comelec has acted on the errors during the mock polls.
Besides, he says it is impossible for PCOS and manual counts to always tally.

SIXTO BRILLANTES, COMELEC CHAIRMAN: Talagang dapat magkaiba, dahil human appreciation ‘yung isa eh. Pero the discrepancy should not be major. Meaning, magkakamali ka diyan, isa, dalawa – ‘yung malapit sa threshold. (It should really be different because one has human appreciation.But the discrepancy should not be major – meaning, you will make mistakes, but just around one or two.)

This year, the Comelec assigns over 1,000 auditors to conduct a manual audit in all 233 legislative districts.
The audit on May 13 will test the accuracy of PCOS machines, this time on a national scale.
Paterno Esmaquel, Rappler, Manila

Story 7: THE wRap: YOUR WORLD IN ONE READ
At number 2, President Barack Obama defends the FBI from suggestions it might have prevented the Boston marathon bombing by acting on warnings about one of the suspects, Tamerlan Tsarnaev.
In 2011,  Russia advised US authorities about Tsarnaev and the possibility he was slipping into the grips of hardline Islam.
The FBI probed and interviewed him, but the case was eventually closed.

At number 7, CERN, the European Organization for Nuclear Research, says it would work on restoring the world’s first website to recreate the first experience of the web.
The new project’s page says CERN quote — “aims to preserve some of the digital assets that are associated with the birth of the web.”
The group will attempt to restore the first uniform resource locator and “put back the files that were there at their earliest possible iterations.”

And at number 10, a new study shows chat apps overtake traditional short messaging service in the number of messages sent online.
Market research firm Informa says by the end of 2012,  more messages were sent through apps like WhatsApp, Kik, iMessages and BBM.
The Verge says WhatsApp CEO Jan Koum claims his company’s service grows even bigger than Twitter.
But the report adds SMS is still far ahead in overall user count.

– Rappler.com