THE United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) has defined “public charge” as an individual who is likely to become primarily dependent on the government for subsistence, as demonstrated by either the receipt of public cash assistance for income maintenance or institutionalization for long-term care at government expense. This has been a policy of the…

KABABAYAN, this information has nothing to do with President Donald Trump’s intensified crackdown against illegal immigration. This piece is about his administration’s most aggressive effort yet to restrict LEGAL IMMIGRATION in the United States. Depending on your specific circumstances, your chances of getting your green card or temporary visa — whether you are waiting for…

LISTEN, MR. PRESIDENT. The people of the grieving communities of El Paso, Texas and Dayton, Ohio are speaking up. For the first time just listen to their pleas instead of being obsessed with crowd sizes, ratings, getting more publicity mileage than your political foes, and cheap photo-ops like when you used a baby who just…

PRESIDENT Donald J. Trump insisted on visiting El Paso, Texas and Dayton, Ohio in the wake of the two mass shootings that happened last weekend. These two latest mass shootings, which were less than 24 hours apart, claimed the lives at least 31 people and injured 53. The two incidents marked 251 mass shootings in…

PUT YOURSELF in the shoes of the men and women who have just lost their son, daughter, mother, father, spouse, or best friend to the bullets coming from these senseless mass shooting in America. As of August 5, which is just the 217th day of 2019, there have been 255 mass shootings in the United…

TWELVE YEARS ago, my family had just settled in California, coming from Minnesota where we lived for four years as my husband completed his training in surgery. I thought my career in broadcasting was over after I said goodbye to my very fulfilling career in radio and television at ABS-CBN headquarters in Manila to immigrate…

THIS just in — after 12 years of delivering the daily news from the studios of The Filipino Channel (TFC) in California, “Balitang America” will be taping its daily newscast from the ABS-CBN Broadcasting Corporation headquarters in Manila, Philippines, joining other news bureaus like “Balitang Middle East” and “Balitang Europe.” While the daily news stories…

KABABAYANS, I hear you. Some of you say President Donald Trump’s tirades against the four women representatives in Congress were not racist. You contend that this is just part of his fight against illegal immigration, and you elected and support him for that. I get it. I understand how strongly you feel about this issue….

MGA KABABAYAN, many of you are Republicans, holding onto conservative principles, especially those anchored on our Christian faith which is very important to us. This is one of the reasons why many Filipinos support the Republican Party and Republican President Donald J. Trump. But where and when do we draw the line between our support…

PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP surprised even his own officials when he announced via Twitter on June 17 that his administration will deport “millions of illegal aliens” in the next weeks, less than 24 hours before his rally in Florida to “kickoff his 2020 re-election campaign.” Of course, we all know Trump has already started campaigning and…

AN EPIPHANY is that moment in the story where a character achieves realization, awareness, or a feeling of knowledge, after which events are seen through the prism of this new light in the story. Are we there yet, Filipinos in America? Or are we still blinded by the glaring prism of fanaticism? I would like…

PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP had again sank to a new low when he shocked America with an explosive statement in an interview with ABC News on Thursday, brazenly saying that if another country offered him dirt on his opponents in 2020, he thinks he would take it, and wouldn’t necessarily report it to to the Federal…

IMPEACHMENT, according to President Donald Trump, is a dirty word and it does not have anything to do with him. This, despite the growing clamor among Americans to remove Trump from office using this process stipulated in the U.S. Constitution as a way to make government officials who hold positions of public trust accountable to…

ROBERT Mueller finally broke his silence on Wednesday, May 29 to announce that he was ending his tenure as special counsel and that he was resigning from the Department of Justice. He clarified the truth behind the investigation that probed any links or coordination between the Russian government and individuals associated with the Trump campaign….

THE Filipino Channel (TFC)’s mother company ABS-CBN Broadcasting Corporation was founded on October 23, 1953, and is now celebrating 65 years “in the service of the Filipino.” I first set foot in ABS-CBN headquarters in Quezon City in the early 70s, when I was just in grade school, tagging along with neighbors who wanted to…

THE MIDTERM ELECTIONS in the Philippines have just concluded with the official announcement of the winners of the national senatorial race. How did the Fil-Am vote’s list of Top 12 senators compare with the overall winners in the Philippines? Despite protests among Fil-Am activists, community leaders and ordinary dual citizens and Filipino nationals living in…

SUPPORTERS of President Rodrigo Duterte, either from the Philippines or here in America, have always been up in arms in defending the president, fighting against any form of dissent or nonsupport among Filipinos in America who openly criticize the Duterte administration. Legitimate factual news has been dismissed as “fake news,” despite videos and actual interviews…

FILIPINO AMERICANS are protesting from East to West to defend democracy, fight for accountability, and for many — to reject President Rodrigo Duterte. Kababayans from New York, Jersey City, Washington D.C., to San Francisco, Los Angeles, Portland and many other cities took to the streets beginning the day after the Philippine Midterm Elections, Tuesday, May…

PRESIDENT Donald Trump is yet again engaged in a Twitter war with Filipino American attorney and conservative leader George Conway, after the president declared the 22-month long Mueller probe, “sick and unlawful.” Conway has called out Trump more than the president’s enablers in Congress and in the administration — including his own wife, Senior Advisor…

THE U.S. CONSTITUTION mandates that there are three co-equal branches of government — the executive, legislature and the judiciary — all tasked to provide checks and balance on each other to make sure that not one person, nor institution will abuse its power and put democracy at risk. It is the same spirit of the…

Is the Philippine government silencing the voices of the overseas absentee voters? FILIPINOS who are now working, are permanent residents in the U.S., or even dual citizens have been taking a more active role in participating in civic and democratic processes in the Philippines, never abandoning our love and concern for the Motherland, especially when…

PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP has been claiming he is the most transparent president in U.S. history. Any self-respecting U.S. citizen committed to the truth knows this is a lie. Transparency and accountability are values upheld by the principles of checks and balances mandated by the U.S. Constitution so that not one person nor institution accorded with…

OBSTRUCTION OF JUSTICE is defined by U.S. law as an act that “corruptly or by threats or force, or by any threatening letter or communication, influences, obstructs, or impedes, or endeavors to influence, obstruct, or impede, the due administration of justice.” Special Counsel Robert Mueller did not and could not exonerate President Donald Trump of…

SPECIAL COUNSEL Robert Mueller’s redacted 448-page report has been made public. In excruciating details, it paints how the 45th president abused his power with corrupt intent through his campaign’s unethical and immoral communication with Russia to win the 2016 presidential election, and how he himself obstructed justice to defend himself, his campaign and his family…

HOLY WEEK is a good time for us to slow down a little and introspect on the meaning of this season in our life. This is particularly important these days when our day-to-day existence has been saddled with challenges, noise, hatred, doubts and fear because of the complexity and toxicity of today’s life. Most of…

THERE IS a humanitarian crisis in the U.S.-Mexico border as President Donald Trump declared, but what is ironic is that he caused this crisis. Yes, there has been an influx of people coming in from Central America — thousands more are arriving as families with women and children in tow to seek refuge from violence…

MAKE THE FULL MUELLER REPORT PUBLIC! Disclose all documents and evidence to the American people. This was what Congress voted on in a rare display of unanimous bipartisanship, 420-0, in the spirit of transparency and accountability to the American people. This has been what an overwhelming majority of American people are demanding as evidenced by…

President Donald Trump: “Why will they impeach me? I am doing a great job?” To which his supporters and fans say, “The American people elected Trump not because he is perfect. They elected him because they know the economy will boom under the billionaire business mogul reality show superstar.” Or, “Who cares about the issues…