DAVAO City Mayor Rodrigo Duterte may have had the most challenging week of his campaign, just a week before the all-important presidential election in the Philippines, following allegations made by VP candidate Sen. Antonio Trillanes. Trillanes alleged that the Philippine presidential front-runner has multiple bank accounts with millions of pesos not declared in his Statement…

THERE are less than nine days left before you either go to a Philippine Consulate/Embassy, or mail your absentee voter’s ballot to cast your vote on the next president, vice president, senators, and other elected officials of the Philippines. Have you made up your mind on the candidates to vote for? If you are still…

FOLLOWING the last presidential debate hosted by ABS-CBN, The Filipino Channel’s daily newscast “Balitang America” asked its viewers: “If the elections were held today, would you vote for to be the next president of the Philippines?”  The result of the April 25 online poll revealed Davao City Mayor Rodrigo Duterte still topping the field of…

WE have been urging Filipinos in America and elsewhere around the world to cast their votes and make their voices heard in deciding who will be the next president, vice president and other elected officials in the Philippines. But recent news about hacking, fraud, cheating, and voting machine problems surely douse water on the fire…

KUDOS to Fil-Am community leader Loida Nicolas Lewis for calling out the Philippine Commission on Elections (Comelec) over a resolution that she says is a violation of the Fil-Ams and other overseas voters’ right to freedom of speech, expression, and even assembly. Lewis, who is a staunch supporter of the Roxas-Robredo team for president and…

After the televised vice presidential debate in the Philippines, The Filipino Channel’s daily newscast “Balitang America” asked its viewers in an online poll: “If the elections were held today, whom would you vote for to be the Philippines’ next vice president”? The son of the deposed dictator, Sen. Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos, came out on top…

YOU care about the Philippines. You want the next president and vice-president to really lead the nation toward progress, peace, order. You want to see more employment opportunities in the Philippines so you can come home and settle down in the Motherland for good, or have a loved one come back and never have to…

THIS Saturday, April 9, could be the last time we will be seeing and cheering for Manny Pacquiao fighting for the belt in the boxing ring. As his camp announced, the Philippines’ Pambansang Kamao is expected to hang up the gloves so he could concentrate on serving the Filipino people as senator, and probably as…

HILLARY CLINTON and DONALD TRUMP—they are the front-runners in the Democratic and Republican races, respectively. But the voters in Wisconsin delivered a divergent verdict in their primary elections last Tuesday, April 5, favoring Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders and Texas Sen. Ted Cruz. Let us discuss how crucial the Wisconsin primary may be as each party…

THE race to the second-highest post in government is a must-follow in Philippine politics. Unlike in the United States where the president and his/her vice presidential pick are elected as a team and from the same party, Filipino voters pick their choices for president and vice president, independently from one another. This is why the…

Roxas second, Poe third AFTER the March 20 Philippine presidential debate in Cebu, The Filipino Channel’s daily newscast “Balitang America” asked its viewers in an online poll: “If the Philippine Presidential Election was held today, who would you vote for?”. The results of the poll aired on March 23 was quite a surprise. The “Dirty…

HAPPY EASTER! Where ever you may be in your journey of life — mourning in your Good Friday or rejoicing in anticipation of the fulfillment of God’s promise in resurrection — know in your heart that Easter morning comes after the darkest night. This is the gift of rebirth, of new beginnings, no matter how…

LAST DECEMBER 8, Pope Francis opened the Holy Door of Mercy of the St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome, inaugurating the Jubilee Year of Mercy. Mercy is defined as getting the grace that we do not even deserve, including God’s compassionate forgiveness of our sins, liberating us from condemnation so that we could start life all…

DONALD Trump is winning more and more states in the primary contests across America and has knocked out all of his opponents in the previously crowded field, making it now a three-man race. The Grand Old Party (GOP) leaders are scrambling to stop the surge and possibly the inevitable nomination of Trump, contending that he…

A WEEK before Super Tuesday 3 — when five states were slated to vote for the candidate whom they believe should be their party’s nominee for the next president of the United States — Donald Trump has been criticized from the left, the right, and everyone else in between. The latest round of criticism comes…

TWO months before the May 2016 Philippine presidential elections, the Supreme Court of the Philippines has ruled that Sen. Grace Poe is eligible to run for the highest post of the nation. This throws out the disqualification cases filed by different parties that question whether Poe is a natural-born Filipino and meets the residency requirement….

WHAT is going on in the Republican Party nomination contest has become more of a nail-biter than most reality shows, thanks to the unexpected sprint to the front by reality show star and business mogul Donald Trump. Perhaps the Republican Party establishment did not see this coming, thinking that the Grand Old Party (GOP) electorate’s…

AFTER the Pambansang Kamao Manny Pacquiao’s controversial statement comparing people in gay and lesbian relationship to animals, the big question during this political cycle looms: would such remarks that have been criticized worldwide affect the fighting congressman’s chances of winning a seat in the Senate in the May election? The results of the latest Pulse…

WHO won on “Super Tuesday”? As I write this on March 1, primaries and caucuses were held in a dozen states (and one US territory) to select a presidential candidate in both the Republican and Democratic Party nominating contests this year. In the most recent polls leading up to Super Tuesday, news organizations have projected…

I WONDER if Manny Pacquiao anticipated such strong backlash regarding his controversial interview, wherein he compared gays and lesbians to animals. If you have not heard or read what he actually said, here is the quote: “Kasi para sa akin ito lang, common sense lang. Makakita ka ba ng any animals na lalaki sa lalaki…

FIL-AM Aries Dela Cruz spearheaded an online petition for Nike to drop the Philippines’ Pambansang Kamao Manny Pacquiao as its endorser after the boxing congressman compared people in homosexual relationships to animals. Now, this kababayan from New Jersey is getting death threats online. The harassment and threats are reportedly not only aimed at Dela Cruz,…

IN the Asian Journal’s Midweek edition on Wednesday, Feb. 17, I shared the advice of Atty. Lou Tancinco, The Filipino Channel’s Pinoy Panawagan Legal Counsel, on why eligible kababayans should apply for naturalization to be US citizens. Tancinco outlined the benefits: family unity, avoiding separation, vivic engagement, federal employment, ease of travel. This topic has…

MANY kababayans in America, even those among my own circle of family and friends, take their sweet time before taking the first step toward naturalization to become U.S. citizens. This, despite the pains and struggles of obtaining their Permanent Resident card (green card) so they can legally live and work in the U.S. Some have…

THIS is perhaps the reason why Filipinos are happy and resilient people despite all the challenges that they face: they continue to believe in love and happily ever after, in “forever,” as the Pinoy teleseryes call it. The question of whether there is “forever” has in fact been debated on in different teleserye and movie…

AFTER the Iowa Caucuses and before the New Hampshire primary, a new national poll reveals the sentiment of the American people on where they want this nation to be stirred moving forward through the presidential elections. On the Democratic front, Frontrunner Hillary Clinton has reportedly planned on shaking her campaign to stop the momentum that…

YOU may already be getting your W-2, 1099 and other forms in time for the April 15th tax deadline. Tax season is also the time when many unscrupulous entities will try their best to scare, confuse, and intimidate you, just to steal away your hard earned money. As immigrants, we are usually targets of these…

The long race to the White House has started with the caucuses in Iowa on Monday, Feb. 1. The election in this state has defied all conventional wisdom, polls and political pundits’ analyses and fearless forecasts. Voter turnout was reported to have broken records, revealing voter enthusiasm in both parties. Republican caucuses Frontrunner Donald Trump…

I RECEIVED a letter from a reader who passionately replied to an article I wrote about the gun control. In the article, I looked at the importance of understanding the spirit and historical context by which the law was written in our understanding and appreciation of the Second Amendment of the Constitution in the very…

IN less than a week, the race to the White House  takes off in Iowa for both the Democratic and the Republican parties. The voters of this state and all the others, as scheduled perhaps until summer, will head to the polls and choose the candidate who they believe will best represent the principles, vision…

AFTER more than a year of debates and court battles, the US Supreme Court (SC) finally announced last Tuesday, Jan. 19 that it will decide if President Obama exceeded his authority when he announced his immigration programs aimed at allowing millions of undocumented immigrants to apply for programs that could make them eligible for work…