Category: Features

Anothertyphoon has hit the home country. Recently, typhoon Juan hit part of the Philippines and as history showed, the Filipino community around the world, banded together to help those affected in the mother country. Filipinos pride themselves in helping one another. When Typhoon Ondoy ravaged the home country, Filipinos from all over the world emptied…

BEING a citizen of a country, we have certain rights and privileges. We also have responsibilities in order to contribute in making a positive change. One of these rights, as well as responsibilities, is to vote for the people who will work with us, listen to our needs and the needs of the society, and…

IN his effort to lead the country towards economic growth, last September, President Benigno Aquino III came home from a visit to the United States bringing with him $2.4 billion worth of foreign investment contracts that is expected to generate 10,000 jobs. The Department of Labor and Employment(DoLE) seems to confirm that the Aquino administration…

ABOUT 11 million Filipinos, or about 12 percent of the Philippine population live below the subsistence level. Because of the lingering poverty, hunger is prevalent in some parts of the country. Furthermore, 18 percent of our population is considered undernourished. President Benigno Aquino III has always reiterated his efforts to address poverty in the country….

THE 7th anniversary of Gawad Kalinga on October 10 proved to be a timely and opportune moment for President Benigno S. Aquino III to exhort hiskababayans to work together in the spirit of bayanihan. He called on Filipinos “to adopt a renewed spirit of volunteerism,” saying that the bayanihan spirit “will serve as a catalyst to bring the country back to…

ON October 2, President Benigno Aquino III completed his first 100 days as the leader of the Philippines, the day when Filipinos evaluated him as president. Although we may have differing opinions about how much he has achieved in more than three months, we should realize that grading him should not be based on popularity….

MARKING the 54th year since the Philippines and Japan decided to reconcile amidst the damage brought upon by the Japanese Military during World War II, Japanese Ambassador to the Philippines Makoto Katsura can only say “arigato gozaimas (thank you very much)” to the Filipino people for being noble enough to accept the reconciliation offered by his…

One of the most in demand workers in the United States aside from nurses today are physical therapists. With the increasing population of the elderly the need for more therapeutic services, the US Bureau of Labor Statistics of 2006 had foreseen the demand for more physical therapists by 30 percent through the year 2018 at…

ENSURING a nation’s future and shaping the minds of its people is one of the most difficult jobs in the world. Part of this responsibility falls on the hands of teachers. It is with them we trust the transformation of meek individuals into successful men and women. In his acceptance speech as CNN’s Hero of…

DESPITE his efforts to keep to his promise of providing a more transparent and responsive government and his acquisition of $2.4-billion in investments from his successful trip in the United States, PNoy was still inundated with poor marks for his first 100 days in the presidency by various sectors. Retired Archbishop Oscar Cruz, who earlier…

DEMOCRACY is defined as a government by the people, in which the supreme power is vested in the people and is exercised directly by them or by their elected agents under a free electoral system. During his inaugural speech last June, President Benigno Aquino III said, “Kayo ang boss ko, kaya’t hindi maaring hindi ako…

FOR thousands of undocumented young people who are still hoping to legalize their status in the US, the dream died on Tuesday, September 21, following the rejection of a defense spending bill in the Senate by the Republicans. Introduced in 2001 and revived in 2003, “The DREAM (Development, Relief, Education for Alien Minors) Act allows…

“All work and no play makes John a dull boy,” said Education Secretary Armin Luistro defending his decision to implement a no homework weekend for public elementary students. Last September 16 the Department of Education issued Memorandum No. 392 that orders teachers to avoid giving assignments to students over the weekend so they could spend…

HERE’S another one for the books, kababayans. President Obama recently announced the appointment of two prominent Filipino-Americans as members of the Presidential Advisory Commission on Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders (AAPIs). The commission was formed as an initiative of the White House for AAPIs. The White House initiative is a federal inter-agency group working to for…

A LITTLE scrimping and saving could go a long way. Barely three months in office and already, P-Noy is feeling the money crunch. He has resorted to austerity measures — first, by promising to bring a very lean delegation with him in his foreign travels and recently, by cancelling his scheduled October trip to the…

IN congress, it was proposed that P1.64-trillion be alloted for the national budget for 2011. Prior to the budget hearings, Malacañang, directly stating that the government under a tight national budget, said that the different government sectors can be sure of the government’s full cooperation in its continued pursuit of transparency and accountability to the…

The presence of an effective judicial independence, especially in a constitutional democracy such as the Philippines’ is imperative in making sure that the fundamental rights of every citizen of this country are observed. In the Philippines, the Legislative (Senate and House of Representatives) makes the laws and the Executive (President) enforces them. In some cases…

LAST week, Floyd Mayweather Jr. broke his months-long silence with a 10-minute profanity-laced racist tirade against Manny Pacquiao in Ustream. The expletive-filled diatribe came at a time while Pacquiao is on the last leg of his three-city promotional tour for his November 13 bout with Antonio Margarito. Mayweather alleged that Pacquiao uses performance-enhancing drugs, referred…

DESPITE of what we normally see or hear in the news about other countries’ economic woes, the Asia-Pacific region continues to stand out in the global landscape. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) reported that not only has the region’s output returned to pre-crisis levels, but its contribution to a global recovery has outstripped that of…

As of July 2010, the Philippines is the 12th most populated nation in the world with an estimate of 99,900,177 next to Mexico, according to the CIA World Factbook. Despite attempts to control the population by promoting family planning and the use of contraceptives, the Department of Health (DOH) and the United States Agency for…

IN A latest survey conducted by the Social Weather Stations, it was reported that the number of Filipinos “who expect their lives to get better in the next 12 months” reached a record high during the final days of the Arroyo administration. Conducted from June 25-28 this year, the survey revealed that 4 out of…

ALL eyes are on the Philippines right now after the devastating tragedy that happened last August 23 where former police officer Rolando Mendoza held 25 people captive in his efforts to redeem himself in the police force. The unfortunate event caused the lives of eight people. Just recently, The Hong Kong government issued a travel…

AFTER the tragedies of Typhoons Ondoy and Pepeng, is the Capital Region (NCR) better prepared this year for the rainy season? Perhaps a review of the measures adopted this year by the Metro Manila Development Authority (MMDA) would be timely. On May 9, the MMDA started the massive dredging of waterways and drainages in Metro…

THE ongoing labor disputes of the county’s flag carrier Philippine Airlines (PAL) has open the possibility of considering an open skies policy to reveres civil aviation policies. According to the government, this move will allow foreign carriers to service the routes of PAL, which can possibly boost tourism in the Philippines. Open skies calls for…

The effect of climate change is slowly presenting itself today. Undoubtedly, this phenomenon poses a great threat to humanity, something that every person is dreading to foresee. Like any other developing country, the Philippines is among the most exposed to the impact of climate change because of its limited resources to combat the menace. With…

ACCORDING to Capt. Rudy Lupton, USS Blue Ridge commanding officer, about 120 of the 650 sailors of the US command ship in the Pacific are Filipinos. The USS Blue Ridge is the command ship of the US 7th Fleet and has control over 45 ships and area of responsibility from Hawaii to India. It is…

IT could be evidence that humans first settled in the Philippines 67,000 years ago, thousands of years earlier than what archaeologists thought. A foot bone, found in an extensive cave network in the Callao Caves near Penablanca by archaeologists from the University of the Philippines, is said to be the oldest human remains ever found…

Last Saturday, July 31, national air carrier Philippine Airlines (PAL) canceled five flights (one destined forHong Kong, the others to domestic destinations) due to the sudden resignation of at least two dozen Airbus A320 and A319 jet pilots who chose to seek better-paying jobs abroad. PAL spokesman Jonathan Gesmundo immediately apologized to the public for…

IN an effort to help reduce risk should another disaster hit the country, the European Union (EU) has approved yet again an additional grant of P125M for projects to be implemented in the local regions that will help the country prepare for disasters. Prior to the recent grant, it was reported that the EU had…

“In him was vindicated the greatness of real goodness and the goodness of real greatness.” – Phillip Brooks ON July 29, President Barack Obama signed House Resolution 4899 or the Supplemental Appropriations Act – a law which includes a provision for the Filipino Veterans Equity Compensation Program, allocating $67 million (about P3.1 billion) “for all…