Text, photos and video by VINCENT GO, VERA Files

Various groups from different sectors vowed to continue staging rallies in the coming weeks, following the nationwide protest they held on March 15, World Consumer's Rights Day, to demand action from government on the continuing oil price increases.

They also demanded wage increases, the repeal of the oil deregulation law, and the scrapping of the 12 percent value added tax (VAT) levied on oil.

As early as 7 a.m. on that day, hundreds of protesters began arriving in front of the National Housing Authority along Elliptical Road in Quezon City. At Around 9:30 a.m., they began what they called a protest caravan towards the offices of the big oil companies in Makati.

Similar actions were held in different parts of Metro Manila throughout the day up to 7 p.m.

"Workers have not received a significant wage increase for more than nine years under the previous administration and more than one year under the present one. The real value of

Text, photos and video by VINCENT GO, VERA Files

A fire that hit the Ever Gotesco Grand Central Mall in Caloocan City late Friday evening continued to rage as of noon Saturday as thick smoke prevented firemen from entering the mall.

According to an unidentified mall guard on duty Friday night, the fire started at the Rusty Lopez boutique on the first level around 11 p.m. but spread rapidly because the sprinkler system failed to work.

Volunteer firefighters who first arrived at the scene had a hard time entering the structure due to thick smoke which required them to use gas masks with oxygen tanks.

The cause of the fire is still to be determined. As of press time, authorities have put the fire on Task Force Delta alarm level, which means the regional director of the Bureau of Fire Protection has been designated fire ground commander.

(VERA Files is put out by veteran journalists taking a deeper look at current issues. VERA is Latin for true.)

Heart Diño 02By Patrick King Pascual, VERA Files

March 1, 2012 was a historic date not only for the LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender) community but also for the University of the Philippines.

It was the day when UP students voted the first transgender chair of the University Student Council (USC).

Gabriel "Heart" Diño, a 22-year-old MS Applied Mathematics student, defeated three other candidates --- Martin Loon of the UP College of law, Amencio Melad III of the Militant Stand UP coalition, and 4th year BA Tourism Major Maria Shaina Santiago.

Another transgender, Pat Bringas,  also won a seat in the student council.

Before winning the student council's topmost position, Heart was a councilor who handled the USC committee on gender and was also a leader of UP Babaylan.

"I had difficulty with my packaging, whether I will be the Heart that people know and expect me to be, or will I be the Heart who will conform to the stereotypes of being the USC chair, which is serious and formal," Heart

By Ellen Tordesillas

Demetrio Vicente inside an SC carIt's perfectly understandable for Chief Justice to take care of his cousin, Demetrio Vicente, who testified in his favor Tuesday at his impeachment trial.

The 70-year old Vicente is not in the best of health having suffered two strokes and Marikina is quite a distance from the Senate in Pasay City.

But he should have used his personal car, not the vehicle belonging to the Supreme Court,

Solar News reporter Albert Alicer and his crew caught on video Vicente riding in a beige Toyota Camry 1996 model with a red plate SEJ.953 after the impeachment hearings Tuesday evening. The vehicle turned out to be registered with the Supreme Court.

Another Solar News reporter interviewed Vicente and the old man, sans guile, admitted that he was "hatid-sundo (fetched and brought home) " by the chief justice.

Marikina City Rep. Miro Quimbo, one of the prosecution spokespersons, has a valid point in saying that, "The fact that the resources of the Supreme Court are being used to ferry

By Ellen Tordesillas

If the purpose of the defense in the Corona impeachment trial in presenting its second witness, Demetrio Coronado Vicente, was to render the prosecution, the senator-judges and the public dazed, they succeeded.

I, myself, got dizzy trying to understand the somewhat disorganized business transaction between him and Maria Cristina Corona, wife of Chief Justice Renato Corona. I gave up when Presiding Judge Juan Ponce-Enrile asked him about tax declarations and Vicente replied, "I don't know."

To be fair, Vicente seemed sincere. Even guileless. And trusting.

It would be unfair to accuse him of knowingly acting as the Corona's dummy. Maybe,taken advantaged of.

Vicente, second cousin of Corona, was testifying on his purchase of seven-parcels of land from Corona's wife, Maria Cristina and her sister Miriam.

The seven parcels of land are part of the 45 parcels of land  that the prosecution said the chief justice owns before the start of trial. The prosecution later

By Carlo Figueroa, VERA Files

DAVAO CITY—Who is considered a transgender — RuPaul or Bebe Gandanghari?

What's the difference between sex and gender?  How about sexual orientation and gender identity?

Most would probably say the differences are negligible, when in fact, they are not.

These seemingly innocuous questions were some of the hottest discussion points in a forum that wanted to explore the youth's notions of these complicated issues.

"Advancing the Campus Rainbow Agenda," a forum co-organized by the UP (University of the Philippines) Babaylanes, Ateneo de Davao Legal Public Interest and Legal Advocacy Center (APILA), Davao City Integrated Gender and Development Division and the Canadian embassy, tackled the issues of sexual orientations and gender identities (SOGI) in the context of human rights.  The target audience:  student leaders of various colleges and universities.

"We are targeting the student leaders because they are in a position to facilitate change by echoing

2012_Hands

By Patrick King Pascual, VERA Files

Carol (not her real name), a long-time dialysis patient at the Makati Medical Center (MMC), depends on a wheelchair for mobility.

Being a diabetic since childhood, she developed peripheral neuropathy (or the damage of nerves of the peripheral nervous system). This resulted to her not being able to walk.

She needed to find an immediate kidney donor for her condition to be better. All her family members were diabetic, so they were not fit to donate their kidneys to her.

Worse, Carol's blood type is A, which made it more difficult to find a suitable donor.

Hope came when she was chosen and enlisted as a candidate for kidney transplant by the Human Organ Preservation Effort. In less than a year, she got a new kidney.

Human Organ Preservation Effort is a non-profit organization in the Philippines under the National Kidney & Transplant Institute, which handles transplants of patients who have different end-stage organ diseases. Donors are mainly patients

By Ellen Tordesillas

I find the revelations of Chief Justice Renato Corona of the meetings that he had with President Aquino and other administration stalwarts very interesting. I just wish that he tells the complete story and not just be selective in his sharing with the public.

I also expect the same from Malacañang.

Corona disclosed the proposal of administration ally Sen. Teofisto Guingona for a term sharing with Associate Justice Antonio Carpio, which Guingona denies.

He should also disclose his counter-offers especially the latest ,made through a retired associate justice , that he was willing to resign on condition that he would keep everything that he owns now.

What Corona has only disclosed were his meetings with President Aquino and the Guingonas, father and son.

The Aquino-Corona meeting has been confirmed by Presidential Spokesperson Edwin Lacierda. It took place in July 2010,  a few weeks after the latter was sworn into office by Associate Justice Conchita Carpio-Morales,