Copyright 2013 PhilNews.com http://www.philnews.com/ Uniting the global Filipino since 1996 Sun, 12 May 2013 00:00:01 GMT - http://www.philnews.com/2013/11a.htm With midterm elections just days away, it bears repeating that from our perspective, Philippine elected officials leave so much to be desired. And one reason why we seem to have such a dearth of top-rate individuals is because political dynasties are pervasive throughout the archipelago ... Sun, 12 May 2013 00:00:01 GMT - http://www.philnews.com/2013/10a.htm With elections a little over a week away, Filipinos need to take a long and hard look at who they are choosing to lead them for the next three to six years—for the Philippines is a country sorely lacking in leadership. For decades we have been electing celebrities, entertainers, and relatives of past and present politicians who are totally unfit for public service. They have neither the training, the experience, nor the intellect needed to properly do the job voters elected them to do ... Fri, 03 May 2013 00:00:01 GMT - http://www.philnews.com/2013/09a.htm You have to give it to American law enforcement; they really seem to have their act together. When the horrific explosions occurred during the Boston Marathon it appeared almost impossible that whoever did it would be apprehended. But just a few days after that bombing incident, authorities seem to have cracked the case. One suspect is dead and another is now apprehended. Large swaths of the greater Boston area were on lockdown and door-to-door searches were conducted in the suburb of Watertown ... Sat, 20 Apr 2013 00:00:01 GMT - http://www.philnews.com/2013/08a.htm The Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism (PCIJ), cooperating with the Washington DC-based International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) recently published a two-part report that revealed that Ilocos Norte Gov. Imee Marcos Manotoc, eldest daughter of the late dictator Ferdinand E. Marcos is the beneficiary of a secret trust account held in the British Virgin Islands ... Sat, 04 Apr 2013 00:00:01 GMT - http://www.philnews.com/2013/07a.htm During this Holy Week like others in the past, for as long as this author can remember, a small minority of Filipinos have been whipping themselves raw or nailing themselves to crosses in a supposed show of atonement and piety. This odd spectacle now draws worldwide interest with curious tourists flying in from all over to witness firsthand flagellants who whip themselves to down to raw flesh or penitents who are nailed to wooden crosses on Good Friday ... Sat, 30 Mar 2013 00:00:01 GMT - http://www.philnews.com/2013/06a.htm Celebrating his first mass as Pontiff a day after being elected, 76-year-old Pope Francis told the assembled cardinals to guard against “the worldliness of the Devil.” Here was a man who made it an annual practice to celebrate Holy Thursday by washing the feet of the poor, and the downtrodden of his native Argentina. Here too was a man who took the bus to and from his work despite having chauffeured vehicles available to him. He preferred living in a modest apartment, cooking his own meals despite access to the well staffed bishop’s mansion in the ritzy the suburb of Olivos where no less than the Argentine president has his summer residence. He chose the name Francis in honor of Saint Francis of Assisi who though born into wealth, chose a life of poverty to live with the helpless and downtrodden ... Mon, 25 Mar 2013 00:00:01 GMT - http://www.philnews.com/2013/05a.htm Reeling from the resounding victory of the Reproductive Health (RH) Bill, the Catholic Church has decidedly jumped in the electoral fray (despite the constitutional separation of church and state) to influence the outcome of the 2013 Philippine elections. The church recently launched a “Team Buhay/Team Patay” (Team Life/Team Death) campaign that identifies legislators running for re-election who voted against or for the RH Bill. Those who voted against the bill are part of Team Life, while those who voted for the bill are part of Team Death—at least as far as the Church is concerned ... Wed, 13 Mar 2012 00:00:01 GMT - http://www.philnews.com/2013/04a.htm We Filipinos have again learned the hard way that we can’t put things off indefinitely because at some point those things will come back around and bite us. Such is the Sabah issue. For decades we were told that a portion of what was then called North Borneo belongs to the Sultanate of Sulu. The land in question it appears was awarded by the Sultan of Brunei to the Sultan of Sulu for the latter’s help during the Brunei Civil War (1660 to 1673). That would clearly indicate that the Sulu Sultanate is the rightful owner of vast tracts of land in the northeastern part of what we now call Sabah ... Tue, 05 Mar 2013 00:00:01 GMT - http://www.philnews.com/2013/03a.htm It is hard to believe that children born during those fateful February days in 1986 are now almost thirty years old. An entire generation—and then some—has grown up never having to experience the fear, the loss of liberty, and the absence of basic human rights that their parents were forced to live through during martial law ... Mon, 25 Feb 2013 00:00:01 GMT - http://www.philnews.com/2013/02a.htm We hope…but don’t hold your breath. We’ve been hearing a lot of rumblings about how great the Philippine economy is doing. The World Bank through its country director for the Philippines, Motoo Konishi stated that "The Philippines is no longer the sick man of Asia, but a rising tiger." And lately there are plenty of bright spots to point to, the most important of which is the country’s GDP (gross domestic product) growth: 6.6 percent in 2012—the highest in Southeast Asia—beating even the government’s high-end target of six percent ... Sat, 09 Feb 2013 00:00:01 GMT - http://www.philnews.com/2013/01a.htm With China breathing down our necks and seizing islands inside the Philippine territorial limits, it is about time that the country institute a draft for all able-bodied men and women upon reaching the age of maturity. Singapore and South Korea, two of the most advanced countries in the region have had conscription for decades. Taiwan, another Southeast Asian powerhouse has been conscripting their young men—and some women—since 1949 ... Tue, 15 Jan 2013 00:00:01 GMT - http://www.philnews.com/2012/38a.htm It has taken us 491 years but we Filipinos have finally stood up to the Catholic Church and said “we’re not going to take it anymore!” It’s bad enough that condoms and contraceptives are readily available in pharmacies all over Rome—where the Vatican is located—so why shouldn’t they be readily available here? Sun, 23 Dec 2012 00:00:01 GMT - http://www.philnews.com/2012/37a.htm As a Filipino-American who migrated to the United States, I unabashedly admit that I have always been impressed with Americans and American society. They seem to really “have it together.” They can be frivolous and funny and never think twice about laughing at themselves, but at the end of the day, they are a can-do people living in a country of great consequence ... Mon, 17 Dec 2012 00:00:01 GMT - http://www.philnews.com/2012/36a.htm As if to remind everyone that the country’s future is in for a rough ride ahead, typhoon Pablo lashed the Visayas and Mindanao regions leaving death, devastation and mangled holiday displays in its wake. The Philippines already has the distinction of being one of the top five countries most affected by extreme weather conditions in 2011*—and from the looks of it, the climate isn’t likely to get better anytime soon ... Tue, 04 Dec 2012 00:00:01 GMT - http://www.philnews.com/2012/35a.htm Accusations of plagiarism have been hounding Senator Vicente “Tito” Sotto III for several weeks now. And the good senator appears to have spent most of his time hee-hawing around an apology instead of actually making one. On November 13th Sotto took to the Senate floor and offered more excuses—saying it was actually a SMS text message sent to him by a friend that he translated into Pilipino. He didn’t know they were the words of the late Robert F. Kennedy. Sotto then went on to say that though he may have unknowingly translated parts of RFK’s speech, “copying or imitation is the highest form of flattery” ... Tue, 20 Nov 2012 00:00:01 GMT - http://www.philnews.com/2012/34a.htm As the American women’s grassroots organization UltraViolet puts it: the just concluded US election has made 2012 is the year of the woman! Not only did women make up 54% of the electorate, but the gender gap which stood at 18 points was at record highs. Women showed up in force to put a stop to what they saw as the Republican Party’s blatant overreach to curtail women’s rights and possibly overturn Roe v. Wade ... Sun, 11 Nov 2012 00:00:01 GMT - http://www.philnews.com/2012/33a.htm What’s in a name? In the Philippines unfortunately, a name is everything. Take product brands for example. To Filipinos, toothpaste is “colgate;” a refrigerator is a “frigidare;” to photocopy is to “xerox;” and picture-taking is of course “kodakan” ... Fri, 02 Nov 2012 00:00:01 GMT - http://www.philnews.com/2012/32a.htm The new Cybercrime Law is piece of legislation that has no place in contemporary Philippine society. The fact that some members of the Philippine Senate managed to insert in it a provision that incorporates the country’s draconian libel laws in order to stifle online speech shows that a few of our legislators still lack the maturity to handle criticism and prefer that no one say nasty things about them—true or otherwise ... Mon, 22 Oct 2012 00:00:01 GMT - http://www.philnews.com/2012/31a.htm Forty years have come and gone since former President Ferdinand Marcos issued Presidential Decree 1081 on September 21, 1972. But to this day, not one of the Marcoses or any of his former cronies has ever apologized to the Filipino people for it. Instead the family and supporters of the late strongman have been trying to rewrite history with half-truths or outright falsehoods that paint Ferdinand Marcos as being something other than the lying, scheming, tyrant that he was ... Fri, 21 Sep 2012 00:00:01 GMT - http://www.philnews.com/2012/30a.htm Nowhere in recent American political history has there been such a polarization in political party ideology as we are seeing in this year’s presidential elections. It appears that both the Democrats and the Republicans have dug in their heels and are refusing to give an inch to the other side. That leaves only a sliver of undecided voters in swing states to determine the outcome of this presidential race ... Fri, 07 Sep 2012 00:00:01 GMT - http://www.philnews.com/2012/29a.htm Filipinos now look to the appointment of Maria Lourdes Sereno as Chief Justice of the Philippines to herald a new age of transparency and justice. This is after all a supreme court perceived by many as highly secretive, arguably corrupt, and there not to dispense justice but to line the pockets of those working in it ... Tue, 28 Aug 2012 00:00:01 GMT - http://www.philnews.com/2012/28a.htm In Management classes students are taught that any “authority” comes with a corresponding dose of “responsibility.” In other words as one moves up an organization they acquire more power and authority but they also shoulder more responsibility not just for the decisions they make but also for the fate of the organization as a whole. An organization that grants individuals the authority to make decisions but does not hold them responsible for the consequences of those decisions is a dysfunctional—usually tyrannical—organization devoid of fairness and justice. No democracy can survive in such a setting as the essence of a democracy is popular representation and public accountability ... Tue, 14 Aug 2012 00:00:01 GMT - http://www.philnews.com/2012/27a.htm With Chinese ships maneuvering unimpeded all over the South China Sea, and the Philippines unable to do anything but watch, there is a miniscule yet growing number of Filipinos who are taking to heart the adage “If you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em.” These folks are the 21st century version of the “Philippine Statehood” movement of the sixties and seventies. And while the rest of us might quickly dismiss them as an inconsequential, fringe group, they do make compelling arguments for their cause ... Sat, 21 Jul 2012 00:00:01 GMT