Category: Features
Covering the week’s most noteworthy feature stories impacting the Filipino-American and Global Filipino community.
A welcome treat for Obama in PH
PRESIDENT Barack Obama will be visiting the Philippines for the first time, on April 28-29 — the last stop of his 4-Asia nations tour in the region. As news reports state, Obama…
Asset or perpetrator?
“I INVOKE my right against self-incrimination.” These were the only words squeezed out of Janet Lim-Napoles, the suspected mastermind of the P10-billion Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF or better known…
Happy 20th birthday, The Filipino Channel!
THIS year marks a very important milestone for ABS-CBN Broadcasting Corporation, the media company that produces Balitang America — a daily newscast which delivers news about Filipinos and for Filipinos…
Starting over again
For Christians, Easter is the celebration of the resurrection of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, and the fulfillment of God’s promise for deliverance of man. But what precedes God’s…
Humility and sacrifice
“Humility provides everyone, even him who despairs in solitude, with the strongest relationship to his fellow man, and this immediately, though, of course, only in the case of complete and…
PH SC rules: RH law is constitutional
DESPITE opposition from the mighty Roman Catholic Church in the Philippines, key provisions in the controversial Reproductive Health(RH) Bill have been upheld by the Philippine Supreme Court (SC) as constitutional …
Moving forward
IT was a hard-fought battle, but on April 8 success gleamed when the Philippine Supreme Court (SC) deemed the basic principles of the controversial Responsible Parenthood and Reproductive Health (RH)…
Crime-busting doesn't pay
In 2005, the late Samuel Ong, then deputy director of the NBI, blew the whistle on the Hello Garci phone calls that resulted in the “election” of Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo and…
Sen. Jinggoy Estrada opens up to Balitang America
Three senators believed to have been key players in the multi-billion pork barrel scam in the Philippines have already been charged with plunder. One of them, Senator Jinggoy Estrada, is…
Praying for God’s miracle
On Saturday, April 12, my husband and I became a lolo and lola. It’s a milestone that we’ve been looking forward to, after our daughter Misty got married in 2012….
Recognition
LIVING in the mecca of entertainment and filmmaking, it is unavoidable for Filipinos in Los Angeles to imbibe the Hollywood culture. Films (whether fictitious or based on real-life events) and…
Poll results on PH seeking UN intervention: Good or bad for the escalating standoff with China?
A MAJORITY of the viewers (76 percent) of The Filipino Channel’s Balitang America, who voted in the online poll regarding the Philippines seeking the United Nations’ (UN) intervention in its…
PH seeking UN intervention: Good or bad for the escalating standoff with China?
WHEN it comes to the territorial row, China does not want the United Nations (UN) to intervene and demands that the Philippines should resolve the South China Sea/West Philippine Sea…
Peace, at last
ON MARCH 27, after 17 years of tumult and unrest, the Philippine government and Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) inked a historic pact for lasting peace in Mindanao through the…
Embattled CA State Senator Leland Yee and the Filipino connection
FILIPINOS in California are still in a state of shock and disbelief, after waking up to the news last Wednesday. After a series of raids in the Bay Area and…
The FOI Bill and the half-a-loaf principle
THOSE of you who are waiting for a Freedom of Information Bill crafted to your full satisfaction should not hold your breath. You folks will pass out from lack of…
Resurgence
DESPITE some hiccups caused by natural disasters in the final quarter of last year, the Philippine economy remains as one of the fastest-growing in Asia. It was a remarkable turnout,…
Fil-Am who breached WTC security: Hero or fool?
“In Balitang America’s daily online poll Isyu Ngayon, 80 percent of viewers believe that Casquejo is a fool and that what he did was careless — a crime that could…
Healthy living is a personal choice
Making a commitment and sticking to it takes a lot of hard work. The beginning of the year is generally the time when millions of Americans commit themselves to being…
March 27 call to action for TPS for PH
NEW development! “US Secretary of State John Kerry has already made his review and recommendation regarding the request for TPS designation of the Philippines, and that recommendation has been sent…
A pilot’s theory on what might have happened to Malaysia Airlines Flight 370
SINCE its mysterious disappearance (after taking off from Kuala Lumpur en route to Beijing) Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 has been reported on ceaselessly by the media, inviting all kinds of…
TPS status update
Many kababayans continue to send me messages and emails, inquiring about updates on the requested Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for the Philippines. Four months after the Philippines was ravaged by Haiyan…
Without a trace
MYSTERY still surrounds the case of Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370, which vanished into thin air (according to radar screens from ground control) while en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing…