Forbes Magazine named real estate tycoon and self-made billionaire Manuel Villar Jr. as the Philippines’ richest man as he topped the country’s list and ranked 317th among the 2,153 global billionaires on its list. The 69-year-old former politician was the first wealthiest man in the country of purely Filipino descent. Villar was among the 17…
“MY first name is Greek, my last name is Spanish but I am a proud Pinay,” declared Hydra Mendoza, Deputy Chancellor for Community Empowerment, Partnerships, and Communications at the Department of Education in New York City. The event was the Filipina Women’s Network’s Disrupt 3.0 book launch at the Philippine Center and it was in…
THE month of March was globally earmarked as Women’s History Month (WHM) to highlight the idiosyncratic contributions of women in history as well as in our contemporary society. Here in the US, the initial unofficial celebration of the recognition of women power originated back in 1911 and later in 1980 a Presidential Proclamation by Jimmy…
Lingayen-Dagupan Archbishop Soc Villegas on Tuesday, March 5, posted a video compilation of Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte’s accusations and tirades against the church over the past two years, a day shy of the supposed start of Lenten season. In an eight-minute video posted on Facebook, Villegas showed clips of Duterte hurling vulgarity and curses towards…
Criminals Pose as Businesses or Government Agencies to Steal Your Identity AARP has found that older Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders are often targets of certain fraud (www.aarp.org/AAPIfraudsurvey). Scammers often use caller ID spoofing to mask their true location, making it appear that they’re calling from a legitimate or local number to raise the odds…
“Filipinos assist with their hearts” This is the remarkable testimony of foreign travellers when asked why they choose to shop at Duty Free Philippines (DFP). A study commissioned by the DFP revealed that 64 percent of foreign travellers surveyed, liked DFP better than other Duty Free stores abroad because of its friendly and accommodating staff,…
The Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) revealed on Tuesday, March 5, that 64 out of 82 politicians in the yet-to-be-released “narcolist” are vying for reelection this upcoming midterm polls. PDEA Director General Aaron Aquino stated that the said politicians were all aiming for a local seat this election. He confirmed the number with the list…
MANILA — Hugpong ng Pagbabago head Sara Duterte-Carpio responded to criticism that their candidate Ilocos Norte Gov. Imee Marcos wasn’t honest about her supposed university degrees. “Lahat sila sinungaling. Lahat ng tao sa mundong ito [ay] sinungaling (All of them [Otso Diretso] are liars. Everyone in this world is a liar),” Duterte-Carpio told reporters covering a…
“MY brother’s neighbor’s girlfriend’s uncle had the same exact case and it got approved and they did not use an attorney.” I’ve heard this many times to have developed a well-curated response: Nothing. A person who has set out to hear only what s/he wants to hear can hear nothing else but what s/he wants…
‘In the Belly of the Eagle: Man@ng is Deity’ tells the journey of Fil-Ams in San Francisco during the 1920s-1960s THE Great Depression hit the United States in the late 1920s, just around the same time when Asian Americans were beginning to migrate to America in more significant numbers. Among the biggest groups of Asian…
AB-60 licenses allow undocumented immigrants to drive legally in California. (Note: these licenses merely allow a person to drive legally and obtain car insurance, but do not authorize employment.) Other states have similar programs. AB-60 licenses, which were designed to help undocumented immigrants drive legally, are now being used against them. It was recently reported…
Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana on Tuesday, March 5, countered Foreign Secretary ’s pronouncement about the 1951 Mutual Defense Treaty (MDT). Locsin stated “in vagueness lies the best deterrence” on the decades-old defense agreement between the Philippines and the U.S.. This was during a joint press conference with U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Friday,…
OUR health and life, believe it or not, depend on the consistency of our blood. Our blood has to be just right — not too thin, not too thick. When blood is too thick, it sticks to walls of the arteries and accumulates to block them as time goes by, as in heart attack and…
ON a Saturday morning in January, 92 Filipina women congregated at the backyard of a hillside home east of downtown Los Angeles for a half-day business and wellness retreat. They spread out their yoga mats, where they would spend the next two hours being led through an opening ritual by an albularya (a traditional folk…
Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte on Sunday, March 3, insisted on changing the name of the country but seems to have dropped his suggestion to rename it Maharlika. “Kaya sabi ng mga ano na papalitan ko, gusto kong palitan balang araw (That’s why I said I want to change it someday),” the president said as reported…
More lawmakers on Monday, March 4, expressed their disapproval on Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG) Secretary Eduardo Año’s plan to publish President Rodrigo Duterte’s list of narco-politicians. Senate President Vicente Sotto III said that the DILG must just directly contact the politicians on the list and place them under investigation instead of disclosing…
A survey released on Friday, March 1, revealed that 78 percent or almost 4 out of 5 Filipinos are worried that they, or someone they know, will be a victim of extrajudicial killings (EJKs) in the midst of the current administration’s war against illegal drugs. The survey, which was conducted by polling firm Social Weather…
Trump likely to veto the resolution Following Senator Rand Paul’s announcements over the weekend that he intended to support a resolution to block President Donald Trump’s national emergency declaration, Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell on Monday, March 4 confirmed that there were enough votes in the Senate for the resolution to pass. If the resolution…
WASHINGTON — On Thursday, February 28, U.S. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos, along with U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) and U.S. Rep. Bradley Byrne (R-AL), unveiled Education Freedom Scholarships (EFS), the Trump Administration’s key proposal to expand and improve the education options available to students across the country. The policy will make a historic investment…
Washington, DC – The National Federation of Filipino American Associations (NaFFAA) recently announced that Jason Tengco, NaFFAA’s current Executive Director, intends to step down from his role at the end of April 2019. After serving more than two years beginning in December 2016, Jason’s departure comes as he begins a Master’s Degree program this summer….
ARE you seriously in debt and don’t know what to do? Individuals who have accumulated excessive debt are often left to ponder whether bankruptcy is their only realistic way to get out of debt. However, they hesitate to do so because of all the negative things they’ve heard about bankruptcy. Sometimes, these people feel that…
Alongside representatives from the California Charter School Association, California Teachers Association, California School Employees Association, California Federation of Teachers and SEIU California, Governor Gavin Newsom signed Senate Bill 126 on Tuesday, March 5, a historic legislation requiring all schools that receive taxpayer funding to follow the same standards for accountability and transparency. “It’s common sense….
THE number of measles cases in the Philippines has skyrocketed within the first two months of this year according to health experts and government officials. As of Saturday, March 2, the Philippine Department of Health (DOH) reported 16,349 measles cases and 261 resulting deaths since the beginning of this year. Most measles cases came from…
THE client is 66. He says he is now old all of a sudden. He migrated here in 2004 so that’s 15 years ago. When he deplaned at LAX, he was just 51 and single. He says he’s been working hard since he arrived, but hasn’t really been able to amass any wealth. He worked…
“The assets distributed to each beneficiaries does not have to be equal.” THERE is never the perfect time to think about who you would like to inherit from your estate in case you pass away or at least who among your closest friends (BFFs) and family members are even deserving of inheriting from your estate….
The recently concluded “Abuse Summit” at the Vatican convened by Pope Francis frontally addressed the problem of priestly sexual abuse – a problem and a challenge set against the extremely difficult-to-meet standard of priestly celibacy. Priestly celibacy, according to the rules of the Catholic Church, means being unmarried. In practical terms, it actually means sexual…
