Category: Features

WITH all the negative issues and events currently ongoing, both in the Philippines and around the globe, this comes as a refreshing bit of good news. Recently, President Benigno Aquino…

APRIL 15 started out as a day of celebration of Patriots Day in Boston — commemorating the first battles of the American Revolution in 1775. Some 23,000 participants from around…

AS USUAL, my buddies at my favorite watering hole in Adobo City (AKA Daly City) turn to me to explain some of the happenings in the Philippines. Of course, I probably know…

WE could only pray that what happened to 15-year-old Audrie Pott would never happen to our own children. She was sexually assaulted by three fellow students at Saratoga High School…

“IF WE want respect, we must demonstrate that we have political power!” This was the consensus at a recent meeting of members of US Pinoys for Good Governance, the group…

MANY optimists believe this could be the week when Congress would finally be able to present a comprehensive immigration reform bill. Talks of a bipartisan support on creating a pathway…

EITHER laws are not properly implemented and followed, or someone’s pursuing a vendetta against the Tubbattaha Reefs Natural Park (TRNP) — a UNESCO World Heritage site and one of the…

IT WAS an epic battle that was bound to happen at some point. Both of Filipino descent, Conservative blogger and political pundit, Michelle Malkin and Pulitzer prize-winning journalist and undocumented…

(Part 2) IN MY last article, I discussed some of the socio-economic implications of marriage (starting off with Social Security and Taxes) and why gay couples insist that the federal…

IT IS identified in every contingency plan that disasters, terrorism and war, civil disturbances can all precipitate evacuation. Ironically, the imminent danger looming in the Korean peninsula has not yet…

(Part 1) MANY of our kababayans who are guided by their conservative views ask: Why do gay couples insist on their “right” to marry, when the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) defines…

Of late, the national dailies and broadcast networks have been reporting news that they apparently believe are of more importance to the Filipino masses than poverty, unemployment, criminality, and the…

AFTER going through the dead of winter, one can’t wait to bathe in the warmth and joy that the promise of spring brings to our life. This is also the…

AFTER vetoing the proposed Magna Carta for the Poor, Pres. Benigno S. Aquino III faced the ire of The Catholic Bishops of the Conference (CBCP) — including the proponents of…

IN THE Central American Republic of Santa Banana, public opinion polls are routinely conducted to determine how candidates for political office rank, ostensibly based on the preferences of the voters….

CATHOLICS all over the world celebrate Holy Week with a new pope: His Eminence, Pope Francis I. Chosen by a conclave of 115 cardinals on March 13, Jorge Mario Cardinal…

BEFORE we look forward to Easter Sunday, we are given a week-long final reminder of the implications of Christ’s Resurrection, from the cross to our daily lives. Far more than…

LAST Wednesday, I wrote about the plan being discussed in the Senate to decrease the number of family visas to give priority to employment-based petitions, specifically for highly-skilled workers. Although…

SMOKING kills, as advertisements would say it, but it remains a choice. If you smoke, you know that cigarettes are harmful to your health, but you still choose to do…

POOR Jun Magsaysay and Dick Gordon must be agonizing over what they should do to improve their rankings in the current senatorial race. Should they learn to dance Gangnam style…

ONE of the more compelling reasons why many kababayans are pushing for the passing of a comprehensive immigration reform is to facilitate the speeding up of family reunification. This is especially true…

Habemus Papam. “We have a pope.” The Vatican has finally chosen its new pontiff in 76-year-old Argentine Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio, who has been named as Pope Francis. As the…

I HAVE been following and writing about the conclave and the election of Pope Benedict XVI’s successor. But I was pleasantly surprised by my own emotions, when I saw white…

THE joke among so-called undocumented Mexicans in California is that they did not illegally cross the US border. The US border crossed them. The other joke is that Europeans were…

VOTING in American Idol. Campaigning for Archbishop Luis Antonio Tagle for the Papacy. Voting for a Pinoy to be CNN Hero of the Year. Participating in the Philippine and US Presidential elections. What…

And so the conclave begins. 115 cardinals, representing all Roman Catholics from all over the world, have gathered in Vatican City to elect the Church’s new pope. Only when a…

AS THE world awaits the Cardinals in the Vatican to start the conclave and elect the next Pope, Catholics debate on the qualities they wish to be embodied by the…

MARCH 8 is International Women’s Day. Historically, this day has been observed since the early 1900’s — “a time of great expansion and turbulence in the industrialized world that saw…

AS THE world awaits the Cardinals in the Vatican to start the conclave and elect the next Pope, Catholics debate on the qualities they wish to be embodied by the…