Noynoy had achieved something historic as a result of his inability to make a stand on the inadvertent shooting of the Taiwanese fisherman by the Philippine Coast Guard (PCG).

It took him more than one week to finally decide on issuing a half-hearted apology and even using the name of the Filipino people, which was of course rejected by the Taiwanese government, over the incident.
By being indecisive, Noynoy welded long feuding China and Taiwan together.
From the day of the incident, Noynoy was vacillating between standing his ground on the PCG’s insistence that it was the Taiwanese fishing boat to blame since it did not stop when it was flagged down in Philippine waters, and issuing a face-saving apology.
Apparently, the Chinese found an opening in the conflict that would achieve for it the proverbial two birds with one stone in winning brownie points with the Taiwanese public and pushing its diplomatic offensive against the Philippines further.
The diplomatic tussle with Taiwan would have been avoided had Noynoy responded quickly by asserting that there was a territorial breach and that the shooting of the Taiwanese was unintentional while at the same time issuing the government’s regret over the incident through emissaries.
It took more than a week for Noynoy to make a decisive move over the issue and sending the Manila Economic Cooperation Office (MECO) chairman Amadeo Perez to intercede in behalf of the country.
The move was deemed too late since Taiwan was already demanding that a more official form of apology is issued and handed to the Taiwanese government.
This is where China found a good vantage point to put increased pressure on Noynoy. China knew that Noynoy cannot officially issue a public apology to Taiwan lest he violates the one China policy and risk a bigger diplomatic friction.
China then exploited Noynoy’s dilemma by adding fuel to the fire issuing statements, in behalf of what it considered its province, to brand the shooting incident as barbaric.
In a sense, China is now asking Noynoy to also issue an apology to the People’s Republic of China over the death of the Taiwanese fisherman, who it considers as its own subject which further complicated the situation for Noynoy.
While it seems that China and Taiwan are speaking with one voice over the incident, diplomatic complexities point to Noynoy offending one or the other in issuing an apology to either.
It would be absurd for Noynoy for make a public apology to China since it would certainly offend the Taiwanese government and its people who are already ganging up against Filipinos working in Taiwan.
A direct apology to the Taiwanese government becomes further diplomatically appropriate since China had joined the fray and it is now speaking in behalf of Taiwan.
The diplomatic labyrinth, however, can be resolved only through a credible personal or private emissary of Noynoy who is connected with government.
During a similar gaffe with Taiwan in which Noynoy’s bungling officials in the Justice Department repatriated 14 Taiwanese suspected of running a telephone fraud scheme victimizing Chinese in Beijing, which also resulted in Taiwan’s suspension of the hiring of Filipino workers, Noynoy was able to send Mar Roxas who was still cooling his heels as a result of the appointments ban after an election.
The problem now with Noynoy is that all of his allies, friends, relatives and shooting buddies are now in government thus the dilemma of not having anybody who would satisfy the qualification of a private emissary.
Well if all things fail, Noynoy can send her sister Kris to do the apologies.

He is a lawyer, as most election commissioners are, but he and they have been breaking their own rules, and the election law itself.

Realizing that the automated polls have been coming up with a very slow count — a task a manual count would have done faster — Commission on Elections (Comelec) Chairman Sixto Brillantes and his commissioners wanted to make the automated polls appear fast, and proclaiming the senatorial winners faster, more to get the slow poll count over and done with. And this the poll body tried to do by violating all the rules and the law by proclaiming these so-called winning candidates via a fax group report, not the automatically transmitted certificate of canvass — and obviously no election returns either, with which to base the CoCs.
It was bad enough that all safeguards for the automated polls through the flawed precinct count optical scan (PCOS) machines were eliminated but this is even worse today, as Brillantes and his commissioners actually base the proclamation of the senatorial bets on a faxed copy of the CoCs, where one doesn’t even know if these are accurate or even fake.
In countering these criticisms, Sixto immediately threatened to resign if those bets — seven so far — proclaimed would not match the final count.
That is obviously beside the point, given that the rules say that prior to the proclamation, there must be a ladderized canvassing. More: The Comelec commits an illegal act when it proclaims a senator without giving the votes he had received and his ranking in the race.
In the first place, there were already serious questions about the Parish Pastoral Council for Responsible Voting (PPCRV) count through the so-called transparency server. That double, and maybe even triple count was certainly not just a mistake, considering the fact that a top Smartmatic official was right there just before the double count started.
And there was too, that Smartmatic personnel who was claimed to have done some “maintenance” work when he really had no business doing so. The problem here is that both the Comelec and the PPCRV which has no credibility either, have been covering up for each other.
Why should there even be “maintenance” work when the count was ongoing. Besides, as the affidavit of the IT consultant of the United Nationalist Alliance pointed out, the Smartmatic personnel, when asked why he was there, remained silent.
If it was truly maintenance work, and if he was a technician, surely he could have said so when asked.
Something rotten certainly smells, not in Denmark but in this country — with Sixto and his adjunct, PPCRV.
The way I see it, the PPCRV precinct count is there for ensuring the trending of Noynoy’s candidates, just as the PPCRV and the Melo Commission in 2010 were quickly trending for Noynoy, as they, and of course the USA, had Noynoy in mind to win the polls.
Recall that even as the count was yet to be finished, there went Melo, virtually proclaiming Noynoy as the winner.
And not to forget the US ambassador who quickly went to see Noynoy to congratulate him on his victory — even before Noynoy was proclaimed and even when the count was not finished.
With the way the elections went, the results of the poll certainly can’t be categorized as credible at all, as for the proclamations made by the Comelec acting as the national board of canvassers, these are certainly invalid.
There really was no reason to rush the proclamation of the senators — even if the count matches the winners.
Sixto and his commissioners are deliberately missing the point. What they had done was illegal and definitely wrong.
As for the winning senatorial bets, they should have known better than accept the proclamation that was performed illegally. They are to be the next lawmakers, yet they are first to willingly break it.

MADRID — The Catalonia bookshop in Barcelona survived a civil war and a fire over its 88 years of business — but nothing could protect it from Spain’s recession.

Like bookshops, theaters and cinemas across Spain, it was no longer getting enough punters to survive.
The store, one of Barcelona’s best-known literary landmarks, closed its shutters for good at the start of the year.
The shelves full of books will give way to burgers and fries when a fast-food restaurant opens on the site on Plaza Catalunya in the heart of the city.
“It’s a loss to the city, in my view,” said Miquel Colome, who bought the store in 2000.
“It was a very hard and painful situation, but it had to be done.”
Sales had fallen by 40 percent in the past five years.
“We had to either raise capital, sell up or take on lots of debt,” said Colome.
Across Spain, bookshops, cinemas and concert halls are being left deserted as recession and a rise in sales tax chokes off cultural life.
The booksellers’ federation CEGAL says sales plunged by 22 percent between 2002 and 2011 and the decline has worsened since.
Since 2008, 30 percent of the jobs in bookselling have been cut, it says. About 30 stores closed last quarter alone.
Spain’s cinemas, as well as losing ticket sales, are reeling from a 55 percent cut in their public subsidies since 2010 and a rise last year in the rate of sales tax (VAT) from eight to 21 percent in some cases.
“The rise in VAT came at a very serious time,” said Juan Ramon Gomez Fabra, president of the cinemas’ federation FECE.
“The way the box office is in the crisis, people can’t manage and cinemas are giving up and closing down.”
The number of people going to see films has declined by 40 percent since 2004 and 114 cinemas have closed down since last year, he said.
April saw the worst monthly takings for a decade in Spanish cinemas — down 43 percent compared to the same month a year earlier.
In theatres and concert halls, the tax hike cost promoters of live music 25 million euros between September and March, according to the Musical Producers’ Association.
“The venues are doing really badly,” said Armando Ruah of the State Cultural Association of Live Music Venues.
“Attendance is down and there has been a very big drop in the amount being drunk in the bars” at the venues, he said.
The crisis is also playing into the hands of another of the cultural world’s enemies: piracy.
Downloads of illegally copied material in Spain surged by 41 percent in 2012 to a total value of 15.2 billion euros, according to the Piracy Observatory, a Spanish watchdog.
“The idea has taken root that culture should be free,” said Juan Manuel Cruz, president of the booksellers’ federation, complaining of a rise in piracy of digital books.
“From no other profession in the country is so much demanded for free.”
To help it through the crisis, the cultural industry is asking the government for greater protection and an easing of taxes on the sector, which provides around four percent of Spain’s economic output and half a million jobs.
“When families are clearly earning less, we must not let that lead to cultural impoverishment,” said Pero Perez, president of the Spanish film producers’ federation.
Others are scratching their heads for new ways to make money out of Spain’s big appetite for culture.
“I am 60 years old and I can tell you that people see three times as many films, go to more concerts, listen to more music and read a lot more than before,” said Colome.
“Transforming that into economic value is another matter. Culture cannot be free but we have to find new formulas.” AFP

The incumbent chief executives of the five populous provinces of Cavite, Laguna, Batangas, Rizal and Quezon (aka the Calabarzon region) south of Metro Manila. have been reported — as of 3 a.m. of Thursday, May 16 per the Comelec Transparency Server — to be enjoying comfortable leads over their respective rivals and well on their way to victory in the just-concluded electoral exercise.

In Cavite, Gov. Jonvic Remulla, the son of Marcos-era politician Johnny Remulla, is leading his arch-rival Liberal Party (LP) candidate Ireneo “Ayong” Maliksi (an incumbent congressman who is now ruing his decision for not having left well enough alone) by a huge margin, with the majority of the province’s election returns already tallied by the Commission on Elections.
Laguna Gov. George Estregan Ejercito of the Estrada political dynasty is expected to win his battle by a landslide against another incumbent congressman, Rep. Edgar San Luis (4th District) of the Liberal Party, with whom he had been bitterly engaged in a war of words since Day 1 of the campaign period.
In the province of Batangas, once considered as the Philippines’ “opposition country” up until the occurrence of Edsa 1 due to its Laurel heritage, pro-administration Gov. Vilma Santos (LP), the better half of Sen. Ralph Recto, is on the threshold of registering the most impressive election triumph of any local politician in recent history. Ms. Santos, a popular actress who had placed her showbiz career on hold to devote ample time to her advocacy, was shown to be leading her poorly-placed rival Marcos Mandanas Sr. literally by a mile, or 757, 638 as against 47, 978 votes, making it impossible for him to register an upset.
In Rizal province, which was once the country’s most prosperous and politically-influential local government unit until it was emaciated by Mrs. Imelda Marcos during the 1970s when she had her husband purposely created the Metro Manila Authority, outgoing Gov. Junjun Ynares’ mother Nini of the Nationalist People’s Coalition (NPC) was leading her closest rival, Esteban Salonga, the son of LP icon former Senate President Jovito Salonga, by a wide margin.
And finally, incumbent Gov. David Suarez of Quezon (National Unity Party), who is seeking his second term in office, is leading rival Irwin Alcala (LP), son of incumbent Agriculture Secretary Proceso Alcala, by a respectable margin of some 30, 000 votes.
Comelec sources had intimated that it is just a matter of time before the official proclamation of the aforementioned incumbent governors is conducted.
Some people are just resistant to change, so for the next three years, it’s still the same old faces who will reign supreme in their provinces.
Congratulations to them, and good luck to their constituents.

In the province of Pangasinan in Region I, incumbent Gov. Amado Espino Jr. of Danding Cojuangco’s NPC party, nonchalantly brushed off the murder charges he is currently facing with a rock solid result against upstart foe Alaminos Mayor Nani Braganza of the Liberal Party, the very first press secretary of Mrs. Arroyo after Edsa 2, with 532, 592 votes to 192, 474. Espino’s running mate Jose Calimlim Jr. also had no problem in shoving aside former Philippine National Police chief Art Lomibao (LP).
Cashiered Catholic priest Among Ed Panlilio showed he was a mismatch against the popular incumbent Pampanga Gov. Baby Pineda, who buried him by a ratio of 4:1 or 446, 192 votes to 112, 030. Since the start, Pineda’s overwhelming victory against Malacanang’s anointed bet was a foregone conclusion. Save for lone hold-out City of San Fernando, all other Pampanga LGUs were supporting the re-election bid of Mrs. Pineda, wife of suspected jueteng kingpin Bong Pineda, who is highly appreciated by the natives because of her political largesse.

And speaking of old faces, the Singson clan has once again proved they are totally unbeatable in the province of Ilocos Sur.
In the first legislative district, Ronald Singson, the wayward son of outgoing Gov. Chavit Singson, 71, who was kicked out of the House of Representatives by colleagues after being convicted of drug possession by Hong Kong authorities while entering the Chek Lap Kok International Airport in July 2010, obtained some 66,121 votes which was double the 33,514 votes credited to opponent Trendy Baterina. Chavit’s other son, incumbent Rep. Ryan Singson, is said to have swamped outgoing Tagudin Mayor Roque Verzosa Jr., the LP gubernatorial candidate, by a similar ratio, 176,514 votes to 86,287.
In the second congressional district, Gov. Singson’s first cousin Eric literally steamrollered his opponent Henry Capela of the Aksyon Demokratiko by a 6:1 ratio, or 120,045 votes to 20,074.
Ryan Singson’s father-in-law and running mate, re-electionist Vice Gov. Deogracias Victor Savellano, likewise trounced radio commentator Rambo Rafanan by a comfortable margin.
In one particular dialog called by the Comelec during the relatively-peaceful campaign period, Chavit laughed off the challenge posed by his one-time ally Verzosa, whose rallying cry was “Freedom for Ilocos Sur,” with a curt: “He is dreaming.”
It turned out that he was spot on, because as the results will show, the Chavit magic hasn’t shown any signs of waning. After 42 years, the Singson dynasty still reigns supreme. Must be due to his stem cell treatment.

I would like to extend my sincerest condolences to the family of an old acquaintance Fred J. Reyes, former editor of Panorama magazine of The Manila Bulletin, who passed away last May 12 at the age of 74.
Mang Fred, who is a lifetime member of the National Press Club, is survived by his wife Noemi Balingit and children.
His remains are interred at the Eternal Memorial Gardens in Pateros.

Of course President Joseph Estrada’s victory in Manila no longer comes as a surprise. His legacy includes political victory despite the obstacles and elitist machinations.

What surprises us is the blitz it registered in the publicity circles particularly the mainstream local and global media. It appeared that the Estrada-Lim contest was of national impact tantamount to the interest generated by a presidential election — the whole country was more excited over this battle than that of the senatorial race!
It is still a story to tell about the only president of the Philippine republic who kicked off as mayor and would conclude his political career as mayor. After serving the rounds of public service as senator, vice president and president, he closes the curtain by being much closer to the poor masses that he loves so dearly, as a local executive.
The ascension of Grace Poe to the top notch senatorial slot comes as a surprise since she was almost a tail ender in the surveys made by the statistical agency run by her own uncle. After 10 years, the fans of Fernando Poe Jr. rise with revenge courtesy of his daughter. This is aside from being the lone candidate endorsed by the opposing camps. United Nationalist Alliance (UNA) stalwart President Estrada stood pat on endorsing Poe despite the clamor of UNA leadership to drop her, together with Loren Legarda and Chiz Escudero.
With Nancy Binay, the Johnny-come-lately UNA fill in candidate claiming the fifth place the surprise is a recurring lesson to the social networkers and all other elitists of the defunct civil society that Philippine politics is all about the victory of the underdogs and those insulted beyond decent levels.
The often insulting and degrading “Eraptions” or jokes actually helped catapult President Estrada to the top. Senator Binay is now the darling of the masses and the ordinary folk. Forget about the social network eggheads and their armchair pontifications and racial slurs on Nancy Binay, they didn’t go out to vote anyway — at least most of them.
But not much brouhaha is being raised over the sprint of a political nobody into the seventh slot who excitedly jumped at a lone proclamation by an equally excited Comelec — Sen. Bam Aquino. It is a surprise and probably a shock of our lives that the populace would rather keep a presumptive silence on the matter. There is especially a tongue-in-cheek grin that somehow the automated election results were manipulated to fit in an Aquino relative who blatantly used his Ninoy look alike features to sell himself to the electorate instead of his father’s who used to be GMA’s field man.
The real shock that really rattles our nerves is how the Comelec continues to insult and disregard the individual choices of the electorate, the latest of course is the inappropriate and speedy proclamation of the batches of senatorial winners. Despite the criticisms from legal experts due to lack of form and substance as the proclamation was based on photocopies of the group report instead of the legislated certificate of canvass, the Comelec proceeded with its hasty skirmish. Trying to impress public of their success with speed, the Comelec blundered with the snail paced transmission and other glitches of overall failure of this agency.
Is Chairman Sixto Brillantes in a rush to assume his ambassadorial post? Well, we can suggest that he takes the MECO post in Taipei!
The last electoral earthquake is still sending aftershocks but the most shocking of all is Comelec itself. Thank God, at least there are relieving surprises!

Dear Editor:

This has reference to the news item written by Mr. Ed Velasco on May 5 (Sunday) of The Daily Tribune, entitled “Avoid Compostela Valley, Advises Local Police Chief.”
In the published news item, it stated that “Compostela Valley Philippine National Police (PNP) chief Police Senior Supt. Camilo Cascolan has reminded all vacationers to think carefully if they will include the province among the places they want to visit, citing the volatile peace and order situation there.”
It was also stated there a misquoted text message from said police officer, “This is a hotbed for rebellion. So everyone must be careful here.”
This office would like to rectify the published article by the writer. I would like to clarify that the undersigned never advised or stopped foreign and local tourists in visiting Compostela Valley Province nor considered Compostela Valley Province as a “hotbed for rebellion” though we cannot deny the fact that there are a number of untoward incidents being carried out by the New Peoples Army rebels in Compostela Valley Province, to include the abduction of police and military officers.
Furthermore, the PNP-ComVal PPO is doing its very best in keeping peace and order in Compostela Valley Province to protect and secure the community.
We understand that as media practitioners, you are there to report to the people the news. We also would like to appeal to you to be careful in giving such title/caption so that it should not convey a wrong perception or mistaken belief to your readers.
It is in this regard that we earnestly request that this letter be given space in your newspaper as we both endeavor to report only that which is accurate and truthful.

Camilo Pancratius P. Cascolan, CESE
Police Senior Superintendent
Provincial Director

MALMOE, Sweden — When Finnish singer Krista Siegfrids ended her Eurovision Song Contest rehearsal performance last week by kissing one of her female dancers, few members of the audience raised an eyebrow.

Eurovision has been a staple of gay culture for decades in western Europe, where gay bars and nightclubs traditionally screen the event and drag queens often pay tribute to the kitsch outfits seemingly made for them.
But if the lesbian kiss stays part of the act in the Swedish city of Malmoe, it could pose a problem for public broadcasters in the socially conservative nations of eastern Europe.
Russia, winner of the contest in 2008, last year blocked plans for a gay pride parade in Moscow, and in neighboring Ukraine, which clinched the top spot in 2004, lawmakers are mulling a bill that would ban “pro-homosexual propaganda.”
It is a gamble Finland’s Siegfrids may be willing to take: courting the pink vote could also boost support for disco anthem “Marry Me,” which has already spawned a same-sex marriage-themed parody on YouTube.
“I absolutely love the video. It’s really funny,” Siegfrids told AFP.
The former reality show contestant said she hoped Helsinki would legalize gay marriage “as soon as possible,” after the issue became the subject of a so-called citizens’ initiative garnering hundreds of thousands of signatures.
In Sweden, which has been a pioneer in gay rights, the city of Malmoe has worked with the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) community to promote the Eurovision Song Contest.
It’s a far cry from last year’s bizarre row between Azerbaijan and its more staunchly Muslim neighbor Iran, which reacted angrily to an unlikely rumor that the country would hold a gay parade during the event.
A senior presidential administration official retorted that Azerbaijan does not even have a word for gay parade — unlike Iran.
But although the competition’s appeal to gay men is widely known, explaining it has never been easy.
“This has become the Fifa World Cup for gay guys,” said Daniel Poehlmann, who was scheduled to speak at an international Eurovision Song Contest conference held at Malmoe University this week.
“It’s not just about the glitz and glamour... Every country competes with a genre that’s different from the next one,” he added.
The 31-year-old student and translator first became “seriously involved” with Eurovision after joining a Facebook group in 2009.
“Now I have around 20 very close friends from this Facebook group, who travel to Eurovision each year,” he said.
“If you go out to (the official party venue) Euroclub you normally assume that a guy is gay until he says otherwise.”
Out of Poehlmann’s Eurovision friends, around 15 were gay, but none of them had ever been in a relationship with another fan.
“Maybe it’s because when you’re this interested, it’s nice to have a counterweight,” he suggested.
Sensing that he might “overdose” on Eurovision this year, Malmoe’s self-dubbed king of Eurovision will be returning to his alternative rock roots later this year.
“I’ve just booked tickets to the Off Festival outside Krakow in Poland, where my friend and I are going to watch the Smashing Pumpkins and My Bloody Valentine,” he said.
Ronny Larsson, a journalist and Eurovision blogger for Swedish gay magazine QX, said that although no one had ever managed to fully explain the contest’s popularity among gay men, he had a theory that might shed some light on it.
“A lot of other people are ashamed to listen to this type of music. But gay people have already come out, we’ve had to stand up for ourselves, what we are and what we like,” he said.
“That makes it easier. Even if it’s a bit embarrassing, it becomes such a minor issue for us.”
There is also a faction within the community who hate the Eurovision Song Contest and Melodifestivalen, the annual series of shows to select the Swedish entry, he noted.
“What I find hard to accept is all these theories that it’s because of the glitz and glamour, because it’s such a cliche and that’s never been the reason for my interest or my friends’ (interest),” Larsson said.
Still, those looking for a bit of disco glamour at this year’s gay club nights in Malmoe won’t be disappointed, with Swedish Eurovision divas Loreen, Carola and Charlotte Perrelli each headlining gigs at nightclub Wonk.
All three have won the European contest at some point in their careers.
Club owner Joakim Nilsson booked one of the city’s premier party venues for the event the day after Loreen won last year’s competition in Baku, since Wonk’s regular premises were deemed too small.
The busy schedule will leave him no time to attend the spectacular music fest in Malmoe Arena, but that may have been just as well. AFP

MOSCOW — Held a virtual prisoner by the Bolsheviks months before his execution, Russia’s last tsar Nicholas II pasted informal snapshots of his family into an album which has now come to light in a Russian provincial museum.

The photographs, most of which have never been seen before, show the last of the Romanov rulers of Russia without pomp and in unguarded moments. Many were taken by Nicholas II himself.
Since the 1920s, the album has been held in the Urals in the local history museum of Zlatoust, a small city in western Russia dominated by foundries.
It is now on show at a museum in Yekaterinburg, formerly Sverdlovsk, where the family was brutishly murdered along with their servants in 1918 in a crime that still raises raw emotions in Russia.
The exhibition marks the 400th anniversary of the founding of the Romanov dynasty.
Without any gold crests or monograms, the album has simple pages with the photographs posted thematically rather than in chronological order. On the back of the pictures are penciled names.
The exhibition has caused excitement in Russia with national daily Komsomlskaya Pravda serializing the photographs. The album has never previously been shown outside the museum where it is held.
“We don’t know for sure how the album turned up in our museum, but it has been in our holdings sinc1e the end of the 1920s. Where it came from though is not recorded,” the deputy head of the history department of the Zlatoust museum, Yury Okuntsov, told AFP by telephone.
“Most likely before that it was in the possession of someone who had something to do with guarding or executing the tsar’s family.”
Zlatoust is around 300 kilometers from Yekaterinburg, where the tsar and his family were shot in a cellar.
The album contains just one photograph taken after the tsar’s abdication in 1917.
The others date from 1914, 1915 and 1916 and it seems likely that the tsar compiled the album to pass the time while in exile with his family in Tobolsk in western Siberia between 1917 and 1918.
Nicholas II and his family initially lived in a degree of comfort in a mansion in Tobolsk. But following the Bolshevik revolution in October 1917, conditions worsened and they were held as virtual prisoners.
They were then transferred to Yekaterinburg in late April 1918 ahead of their execution.
“It’s possible that the tsar compiled this album after he arrived in exile” in Tobolsk, Okuntsov said.
“It seems likely that in 1916 he would not have time for this: He was almost constantly at the general headquarters of the armed forces. But then he found himself with nothing to do and got to work on the album in Tobolsk, this is possible.”
Okuntsov said he first came across the album in the museum’s archives in the 1980s when it would have been unthinkable to exhibit the photographs.
Since the 1990s, with the wave of interest in the tsar’s family, he said he had followed publications but only seen a handful of the photographs replicated elsewhere. When Tsar Nicholas’s diaries were published, he used them to pinpoint the chronology and locations.
“Altogether there are 210 photographs, in good condition. Only one was taken in 1917, where the Duchesses have closely cropped hair” after suffering from illness, said Okuntsov.
The daughters Tatyana and Olga have shaven heads in the photograph taken at Tsarskoye Selo with their father and brother.
These are not formal, technically perfect photographs but appear to have been taken by the tsar and his family, who were keen amateur photographers and who look open and relaxed in front of the camera.
In one, Nicholas II jokingly gives his youngest daughter Anastasia a puff on his cigarette holder.
In another, his son Alexei, clad in a stripy bathing suit, stands in a hole on a river bank as Nicholas II wields a spade in a shabby army uniform.
The most exotic photograph shows Nicholas II and Alexei with an elephant which was taken out of the royal family’s private zoo to swim in a pond during a heatwave — an incident recorded in Nicholas II’s diary. AFP

The Commission on Elections (Comelec) seems to be proceeding on the path of ignoring all forms of protests leveled against the automated elections and what had turned out to be a totally defective system wide open for massive electoral fraud, as it is being proven these post-election days.

The United Nationalist Alliance (UNA) and some independent poll watchdogs which rejected being co-opted by the Comelec, put their foot down on the chaotic way that the votes are being counted or miscounted.
The various reasons to which the Comelec has been resorting, primary of which was throwing the blame on the supposed weak signals of the telecommunications systems for transmission delays, were all exposed for what they are --- alibis --- with the Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co., which carried the system used for the precinct count optical scan (PCOS) machines, issuing a loaded statement that in essence said the Comelec should blame the defective Smartmatic system and not the PLDT network.
The telecoms giant said that in the May 2010 polls, “nearly 80 percent of the election results were successfully transmitted to the central data servers of the Comelec and (its citizens arm) the Parish Pastoral Council for Responsible Voting (PPCRV) 12 hours after the polling precincts were closed.
“From a purely telecoms standpoint, there is no reason why a similar, if not better, result should have been achieved in 2013,” a statement PLDT issued said.
After PLDT had upgraded its system several times including its latest multibillion-peso improvement of its broadband network, it would be hard to comprehend why the 2010 transmission was faster than in the just held elections.
It was obvious that the Comelec is trying to cover up for Smartmatic, the provider of the automatic elections system, and divert scrutiny on its decision to purchase the defective machines when there are far more reliable elections systems available and likely at a cheaper price.
The statements being issued by Comelec officials, spokesman James Jimenez, in particular, said that the PCOS-based system will be retained since the government does not have the financial capability to keep on replacing its automated elections system.
Jimenez said that the machines will undergo periodic maintenance to prepare these for the 2016 polls.
The question is, what is so valuable in the Smartmatic system for it to be maintained from the time Noynoy won the elections in 2010 and the next presidential elections in 2016?
The Smartmatic system was used in the 2010 polls, with the results also questionable and it seems that three years after, the whole system proved to have worsened and its defect multiplied instead of being upgraded by its provider.
Smartmatic and software provider Dominion Voting Systems were tied up in a legal tussle when the Comelec decided to buy the PCOS machines outright, thus ignoring the reliability of the system since the software being used can only be upgraded and fully maintained by the provider.
Thus the machines used a three-year-old system that did not get any form of maintenance updates which was the probable reason the machines mostly failed during the crucial day of the elections.
The Comelec, by refusing to resolve the various questions being raised on the defective automated polls system, is thus risking a prolonged legal tussle that may even put the results of the current elections at risk.
Smartmatic for the past two elections has had and still has, practical control of who gets the vote with the Comelec surrendering the polling system to the Latin Americans.
That would remain the case with the Comelec decision to maintain the system until 2016.

We did tell you so.

Despite Sixto Brillantes’ assurances that the precinct count optical scan (PCOS) fueled 2013 polls would be a breeze, even without a review of the source code, and even, as he said earlier, the polls can go on without any source code, the automated election under the Brillantes Commission on Elections (Comelec) has turned out to be a big flop, with the results of the race, especially in the national level, highly questionable, what with some 11 million votes unaccounted for and with some senatorial candidates already proclaimed in a highly irregular manner.
What was the rush for Brillantes and his commissioners to proclaim the six national candidates, given the fact that only 25 percent of the national canvass count has been in?
Then too, there were just too much delays in transmitting the count on the municipal and provincial level, which certainly gives the cheats more than enough time to alter the results of the elections, especially in the national level.
There seemed to have been such a rush on the part of the Comelec to proclaim the winners of the senatorial race, violating the law on the ladderized count. Is Brillantes ensuring that he would be getting his ambassadorial post as a reward from Noynoy to ensure either a 9-3 or 10-2 or even 11-1 outcome for Noynoy’s Team PNoy?
That there was some kind of black ops done on Jack Enrile and even JV Ejercito seems fairly clear, considering the fact that almost immediately after the Parish Pastoral Council for Responsible Voting (PPCRV) came up with its precinct count, and the Team PNoy bets were at the top, already the Liberal Party and the yellow media were already talking about Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile being booted out of the Senate presidency.
It was so obvious that the LPs wanted to bring down the United Nationalist Alliance (UNA) bets and no doubt through computerized cheating.
There were just too many incidents that point to widescale cheating. To date, according to watchdog Namfrel, based on its data, not one region has given a 100 percent transmission of votes yet. It also showed that the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, usually a problem area during elections, had the least number of election returns (ERs) transmitted, with Lanao del Sur having the most number of unaccounted ERs.
The count may well end up with a 11-1 for Team PNoy.
What is not being realized by Team PNoy, the LPs and yes, even Noynoy, is the fact that with the PCOS-fueled polls showing too many cheating operations, Noynoy’s victory in 2010 has become much too questionable too. Recall that the Jose Melo Comelec also quickly proclaimed Noynoy as president even when the official count was not as yet over.
Yet there went the Brillantes Comelec now even saying that for the 2016 presidential polls, the Commission will still be using the same flawed PCOS machines because, as he claimed, it will be too expensive to get a new automated system and new machines.
What it looks like is that Noynoy and the LPs are making sure that in 2016, as they still will be in control, they can again cheat it out during the 2013 polls and get the presidency and shut out the opposition.
After all, the flawed PCOS in 2010 made Noynoy win, and in the 2013 senatorial polls, the same flawed PCOS and its fraud-filled system also made the Team PNoy bets win. Why not in 2016, with the same PCOS, Smartmatic and the flawed automated system?
No proof of electoral cheating? Hell, it was there for all to see: Smartmatic personnel were at the PPCRV tampering with the transparency server and with the Comelec officer even giving the Smartmatic personnel the Comelec password. Why?
Even the Comelec cheating syndicate was again at work, in various towns and municipalities plus provinces, not transmitting the count, mainly because these cheats were still altering the vote count — and most probably to the favor of LP candidates.
Again, the cheats won. And we are supposed to just grin and bear it when our sovereign will has again been thwarted?
Junk the PCOS and its system. Junk the Comelec. Junk the LPs who have been robbing us of our sovereign right to choose our chosen leaders.