PRESIDENT Donald Trump yet again exonerates a supporter accused of abuse against women. This time it’s White House Staff Secretary Rob Porter. Porter resigned this week after allegations against him were made public by his former wives, Colbie Holderness and Jennifer Willoughby, after they reportedly contributed to a delay in granting him a permanent security…
HAS it been only a year? Seems like a long long time since business mogul and reality show star Donald J. Trump took his oath of office to be the 45th president of the United States of America after winning the electoral college majority vote, despite his political opponent Hillary Clinton winning more votes among…
AMID the growing partisan divide in President Donald Trump’s chaotic first year in office, any criticism against his action, words, policy, and character have been deemed by our Republican kababayans as a personal attack against the president by Democrats and liberals, who could not wait to bring down the Trump presidency because they could not…
AMID the growing partisan divide in President Donald Trump’s chaotic first year in office, any criticism against his action, words, policy, and character have been deemed by our Republican kababayans as a personal attack against the president by Democrats and liberals, who could not wait to bring down the Trump presidency because they could not…
TRUMP denied it. The president of the United States tweeted he did not describe certain nations from Africa as “shithole countries” during a bipartisan meeting on immigration when he rejected a bipartisan deal on the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program. Trump also denied he demanded that people from Haiti be removed from negotiations…
OPRAH WINFREY delivered a powerful, empowering and inspiring speech after she accepted the Cecil B. DeMille Award during the Golden Globe Awards on Sunday, January 7. It is an honorary Golden Globe Award bestowed by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association for “outstanding contributions to the world of entertainment.” Since the first time this award was…
Since January 1, 2018, the state with the biggest Filipino population in the United States has been selling recreational marijuana after voters in California legalized the practice in a November 2016 ballot measure. Recreational marijuana has already been legalized in seven other states and the District of Columbia, while 29 states — plus the District…
Filipino-American human rights advocates and community leaders wrote a letter to Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte citing their concerns about the growing number of deaths in the hands of law enforcers in Duterte’s bloody war on drugs. They cited Amnesty International, which recently published reports about “the extrajudicial killings of over 7,000 persons suspected of dealing…
I was planning on writing something inspirational to close this year but the recent headlines in the Philippines have made a lot of Filipinos — not only in the Philippines, but here in the United States and elsewhere in the world — unsettled. ABS-CBN News reported on Thursday, December 28: “Two people died while two…
As we bid farewell to 2017 and greet the new year 2018, join me and the whole team of “Balitang America” (BA) in revisiting the stories of 2017 that made headlines in the Filipino American community. The Filipino Channel airs BA’s 2017 Year-end Report on December 29, with an encore presentation on January 1. This…
The internet has been an important part of our modern civilization. It has exponentially changed our world by leaps and bounds because it made access to information and communication so easy and quick. It has also provided us with bridges to connect with our family wherever in the world they may be and has helped…
CHRISTMAS is less than two weeks from now, and this wonderful season is just opening the hearts of people to give more, in gratitude to all the blessings we have received in the past year. Our generous spirit goes beyond giving to our family and friends, as we are also compelled by love and sense…
Vindicated. Empowered. This is how I feel on behalf of my fellow women, and men who want to do what is right in honor of their mothers, wives, sisters, friends. TIME Magazine‘s choice of the “Silence Breakers” — “for giving voice to open secrets, for moving whisper networks onto social networks, for pushing us all…
PRESIDENT Donald Trump gave his full support behind the candidacy of Roy Moore, a former judge who is running for senator in a special election in Alabama on December 12. Trump endorsed Moore despite the fact that at least six women have come forward, accusing Moore of making unwanted sexual advances toward them when they…
PRESIDENT Donald Trump has been in office for almost a year now but has yet to score a legislative victory. This is why he has been so adamant in getting his Republican legislators to pass the GOP tax bill before Christmas. However, even his party mates have aired their concerns about the tax bill, especially…
PRESIDENT Donald Trump has been touting that he will be giving Americans a great Christmas gift when he signs the Republican tax bill into law before the holidays. What is he talking about? Who among the American people will pop the champagne for Trump’s tax plan? Unfortunately, it will not be you and me and…
THANKSGIVING dinner’s star in America is the roast turkey carving. Like most Filipinos in America, I felt so very much part of American culture and tradition when I roasted my family’s first turkey during our first Thanksgiving celebration in America, some 16 years ago. I served it complete with all the traditional fixings and side…
HAPPY THANKSGIVING DAY! Amid the stress at work and at home, preparing for a Thanksgiving feast, planning for Black Friday shipping, thinking about the Christmas holidays and gift-giving, our year-end review of goals met and those still pending, the bank, credit card, auto, rent and mortgage payments, tuition fees, money to be sent to help…
IT has been a little over a month since Stephen Paddock opened fire on the night of the Route 91 Country Music Festival in the Las Vegas Strip last October 1. The lone gunman killed 58 innocent people and injured more than 500. The Filipino Channel’s daily newscast “Balitang America’s” Nevada correspondent Bev Llorente, supported…
NEWS ANCHOR. That is my job title. I present the news every day. You see me on camera leading in to stories or doing live interviews, moderating debates, and weaving all the stories together. BUT I am in the safety and convenience of our studio. Behind the cameras are the true newsmen who go out wherever the…
Documentary airs on November 12 “BALITANG AMERICA” (BA), the daily newscast of ABS-CBN International’s The Filipino Channel, is celebrating its 15th year and has become the leading source for Filipinos in North America. BA is a 30-minute newscast aired daily from Mondays to Fridays that presents news stories about Filipinos in North America, as well…
WE hear this a lot: Just keep repeating a lie, over and over, and people will believe it. A falsehood being told, people will still believe the lie if it’s repeated enough. Apparently, this has some scientific backing as evidenced by a 2015 Vanderbilt University study published in the Journal of Experimental Psychology. This scientific…
THE TRUMP administration has claimed that the independent probe by Special Counsel Robert Mueller on the alleged collusion between Russia and the Trump campaign to interfere in the 2016 U.S. presidential election is ending because of lack of evidence. However, the fact is: the case has moved forward with the indictment of Trump’s former top…
THE FILIPINO CHANNEL’s daily newscast “Balitang America” has been covering the plight of our Filipino World War II veterans since the program started airing 15 years ago. In all those 15 years, we have seen how demoralized and frustrated these Filipino veterans had been for hoping, year after year, that their sacrifices would finally be…
TRUMP and DUTERTE. They like each other a lot. They only have accolades for each other, pretty much like Trump and Putin. It’s a stark contrast with the tense relationship Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte had with Trump’s predecessor, Barack Obama, whom he cursed because the 44th president of the United States openly said he wished…
OUR HEARTS go out to the victims of the California wildfires that have been devastating many parts of the wine country in Northern California this month. This is personal to me as our friends who live in Santa Rosa are among those whose lives will forever be changed by this tragedy. Dr. Marlon De Castro,…
THE White House is calling on the University of Nevada-Las Vegas to investigate a Fil-Am history professor after she expressed an opinion critical of President Donald Trump during one of her lectures. This comes in the wake of the deadly massacre in Las Vegas that claimed the lives of 58 people and injured about 500…
HEALTH CARE is a right and not just a privilege. This is the philosophy behind the plan proposed by Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders — a policy he has been advocating for years, and especially during the 2016 U.S. presidential election. Because it is a fundamental right, Sanders proposes a plan that would create a federally…
AS CONGRESS scrambles whether to repeal Obamacare and what to replace it with, Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders introduced a bill in the Senate that attempts to actualize what he has been advocating for: health care is a right for all Americans, and not just a privilege to be accorded to and enjoyed by those who…
Much of the criticism surrounding Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte’s bloody war on drugs can be pointed to how he looks at drug addiction. The administration’s policies to solve the drug menace appear to be based on the president’s belief that drug addiction is a crime, and criminals need to be penalized, and in many times…
