Category: Opinion & Editorial Columnists

The demolition campaign against Jojo Binay has begun in earnest. Alan Peter Cayetano and Antonio Trillanes have apparently mounted their own efforts, parallel to those of Mar Roxas and the Liberal Party, to erode the high approval and voter preference rating of Binay. Their latest thrust is to call for a Senate investigation of allegations…

MANY of our kababayans have loved Robin Williams for his genius as an actor, but there are more who just found out that this great legend was married for 19 years to a woman of Filipino descent,  Marcia Garces. In a report by Balitang America Correspondent Rommel Conclara, I found out that Williams invented the…

PEOPLE from different parts of the world mourn the passing of the genius that was Robin Williams, who was found dead, reportedly because of suicide, in his own home in Tiburon Island, San Francisco last August 11. With a remarkable career in the entertainment industry that had spanned four decades, people could hardly make sense…

MY late boss, Tony de Joya, chairman of Advertising & Marketing Associates, was also, at one time, executive vice-president of Precision Electronics and led the negotiations for a joint venture with Panasonic Corporation (formerly Matsushita Electric). Among the many valuable things he learned from dealing with the Japanese, some lessons could be helpful to Noynoy…

After being under the Marcos Dictatorship for 20 years, many kababayans have developed some sort of paranoia that whoever was the incumbent president would be doing what Marcos did — manipulate the system in order to go beyond the constitutionally mandated tenure for President and hold on to power for as long as possible. This…

BALITANG America cited reports that President Barack Obama could issue an executive order on immigration by early September, which would impact the lives of qualified undocumented immigrants, including many Filipinos. White House Spokesman Josh Earnest reportedly hinted on this last Monday, stating that this executive action could include allowing these undocumented immigrants to legally work…

YEARS back, I wrote about the legal victory and vindication of Filipina nurses who were wrongfully terminated by their employer hospital for allegedly speaking in Tagalog while on duty in the hospital. The decision favoring the nurses was grounded on the fact that these nurses spoke in Filipino during break time, and not when they…

MANY, including myself, wanted to hear the 2014 SONA as much to learn about the State of Noynoy Aquino as we did about the State of the Nation. Thus, in my hotel room in Honolulu  (where I happen to be, en route to San Francisco), I waited late into the night for the online news…

ON Sunday, July 27, I lost my hero — my father, my pillar of strength. I am grateful for the opportunity to have visited the Philippines last June — that turned out to be the last time I would see, kiss and hug my Daddy alive. He died peacefully at 4 pm, after I said…

BEFORE his State of the Nation Address on Monday, July 28, President Benigno Aquino III faces the most challenging time of his Presidency. The first two cases wanted to oust him from office for allegedly betraying the public trust and violating the 1987 Constitution over his administration’s implementation of the Disbursement Acceleration Program (DAP). The…

THE battle lines have been drawn. On one side, high caliber apologists have been harnessed to justify the Disbursement Acceleration Program (DAP) of Noynoy Aquino and Butch Abad, in the face of the Supreme Court decision decreeing it unconstitutional. On the other side are a mixture of well-meaning individuals, sharp legal minds,  political enemies, Aquino…

WHEN I emceed the Peoples’ Ball, celebrating Philippine Independence with more than 1000 kababayans in Washington DC last June, I had the privilege of being serenaded by amazaing vocal talents singing classic arias and love songs. They were among the performers of Noli Me Tangere the Opera. It premiered in New York City and is…

THE song of Tony Orlando and the Dawns once again kept playing in my mind upon reading about President Benigno Aquino III’s call for Filipinos to wear yellow ribbon to show their support for his administration’s protest against the Supreme Courts’ decision, ruling that PNoy’s Disbursement Acceleration Program (DAP) is unconstitutional. As quoted by ABS-CBN…

IT may be perhaps the biggest challenge of his presidency.  Benigno “PNoy” Aquino III faces impeachment cases to oust him from office, following the decision of the Supreme Court (SC) that the Disbursement Acceleration Program (DAP) is unconstitutional. In a televised speech, PNoy responded to the highest court’s ruling, and tried to explain to the…

AFTER kababayans found out via social media about how a Catholic priest from Cebu insulted and humiliated a 17-year old mother during the solemn sacrament of baptism of her baby, many ask: what right has this priest to do that, especially in front of the public to witness? Speaking in the vernacular Cebuano, the priest…

IF YOU are active in social media, you may have already seen the video or read about the shocking incident involving a Catholic priest from Cebu, who humiliated a 17-year old mother during the solemn sacrament of baptism of her baby in front of the public to witness. Fortunately, the baby’s Lola was able to…

IF YOU haven’t heard of BUB, you will be seeing a lot of its effects in the next several months leading up to the 2016 elections — P20.1 billion worth of effects. BUB is supposed to stand for Bottom Up Budgeting, which, in turn, is supposed to mean allocating funds according to the needs of…

RESPONDING to the clamor for Malacanang to explain why Nora Aunor was not given the honor of being recognized as Philippine national Artist, President Noynoy Aquino explained and let me quote him in full: “Iyong first of all, for the record, iyong tatay ko isa sa mga fans ni Nora Aunor at pati ako humahanga…