BY GERARD NAVAL

ELECTIONS chairman Jose Melo yesterday said the Supreme Court has decided to junk the petition of the Concerned Citizens Movement to nullify the P7.2 billion poll automation project with the consortium Smartmatic-Total Management Information for the May 2010 elections.

"We don’t have the copy of the order yet but I am told that its 11-3-1," Melo said.

Melo, a former SC magistrate, said he was told by his sources that the three justices who opposed the decision were Associate Justices Antonio Carpio, Conchita Carpio-Morales and Arturo Brion. All three are appointees of President Arroyo.

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Tax on text hurdles House panel

BY WENDELL VIGILIA

THE House committee on ways and means yesterday adopted a bill sponsored by Rep. Eric Singson (Lakas-Kampi, Ilocos Sur) to impose a five-centavo excise tax on text messaging.

House Bill 6625 imposes the additional tax on every short message service (SMS), message service (MS) and multimedia service (MMS) sent from mobile phones.

The measure explicitly states that the additional tax levied "shall be paid and absorbed by the mobile phone and overseas dispatch or message service providers who shall be prohibited from passing on the cost of such tax payments, either directly or indirectly, to any consumer in whatever form or manner."

BY ANGELA LOPEZ DE LEON

A QUEZON City family court yesterday admonished deputy national security adviser Luis "Chavit" Singson and common-law wife Rachel Tiongson to refrain from speaking to the media about the "assault" case filed by the latter.

The gag order was issued after the QC Regional Trial Court Judge Angelene Mary Quimpo-Sale after a preliminary hearing on the case against Singson for violation of R.A. 9262 (Anti-Violence Against Women and Children Law).

Tiongson’s counsel Dexter Lacuanan told reporters that while the case has caught the imagination of the public, "it is first and foremost a private matter."

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