The Philippines is one of Asia’s most populous countries and primarily a Christian nation where approximately a large percent of its citizens are devout Catholics. That being said, the Filipino community is widely known to have unique way of celebrating religious holidays. Christmas is perhaps the most awaited season for everyone. In some countries, preparations…
LOS ANGELES – On Monday night, President Benigno S. Aquino III declared a state of national calamity in order to expedite the government’s rescue, relief and rehabilitation efforts in the provinces devastated by Yolanda. The state of national calamity will remain in effect until lifted by Aquino. According to a Philippine Daily Inquirer report, as much as…
Blame October’s lunar monsoons orbit last Wednesday. The much ballyhooed “Roast of the Decade” by no less than the meanest, cruelest, heartless and outrageous troika of Bobby Reyes, Bernardo Bernardo and Ka Larry Pelayo turned out to be a romantic evening for Deputy Consul General Dan Espiritu, whose tour of duty ends this month. The…
We briefly discussed in the last article the current rules for acquiring U.S. citizenship by birth abroad to U.S. citizen (USC) parents. Today, we’ll see some examples that illustrate both current and past acquisition laws. Let’s say A was an American soldier who remained in the Philippines after the end of the Philippine-American War in…
IN strolling through the shopping centers in our Office’s surrounding neighborhood, one cannot help but feel that the immigrant sprit of entrepreneurship is alive and well. Small IT start-ups, mom-and-pop Asian restaurants, franchise American take-out restaurants, hair salons, bookstores, and language and music schools, are owned and operated by immigrants—many of whom are recent arrivals….
THE outspoken senator strikes again. While Sen. Miriam Defensor-Santiago was busy grilling Janet Lim-Napoles at the senate hearing on Thursday, her quips were also trending in social media. Leaving her sickbed for the senate investigation on the P10-billion pork barrel scam, Santiago was merciless in her line of questioning, albeit in a more composed tone….
OUR beloved Philippines has once again been tested by the wrath of nature, with the landfall of Super Typhoon Yolanda (International name: Haiyan), which meteorologists say may be the strongest tropical cyclone to hit land anywhere in recorded history — even more intense and powerful than typhoon “Yoling” which caused massive death and destruction in…
THE Israelites have just ended their 40 years of wandering about in the Sinai Desert after God delivered them from 400 years of bondage in Egypt. God, my God, the God of Moses and Israel, Who sent to us His only and beloved Son, Jesus Christ, Who became man through the Blessed Virgin Mary, Who…
1. IRS wants you to keep good records to document your income and support your expenses. It does not require you to keep records in any specific manner, but there are proven ways to keep good files. Read on. 2. There are two basic types of filers: the rat pack that hoards files for the…
Q: I WORK as an assistant manager for a retail store. I am a salaried employee and exempt from overtime. Upper management requires me to multi-task and do the work of hourly employees such as stocking the shelves, data entry, and customer service – tasks which take up a lot of my time and force…
QUESTION: I’m in the military and I know somebody who was in the military years ago. Can we become US Citizens? Answer: Members and certain veterans of the US armed forces may be eligible for naturalization through their military service under a couple of different sections of the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA). Additionally, the…
FULLERTON – A Filipina labor trafficking survivor testified at a Congressional hearing on Tuesday, detailing how she was brought to the country and forced to work at an elderly care home. Angela Guanzon, 36, said she was so naive and excited to come to the United States in 2005 that she didn’t ask her recruiter…
BATON ROUGE – Nerelyn Soreta, a Filipina teacher in Baton Rouge, LA charged with assaulting a wheel chair bound student, is now out on a $10,000 bail. According to a Balitang America report, Soreta was charged with simple battery of the infirm. If convicted, Soreta will be face six months of incarceration for the offense. Earlier this…
LOS ANGELES – Amid ‘conflicting’ and ‘misleading’ information about the Affordable Care Act (ACA), in a press briefing, officials of Asia Pacific Health Care Ventures (APHCV) emphasized that proper education about the health reform law is vital, so that people can understand what they’re going to get under the law and be able to take…
Builds on gang prosecution success LOS ANGELES – A Filipina lawyer is banking on her success as a gang homicide prosecutor to serve as a springboard for her bid to become the next Judge for the LA County Superior Court. Teresa Pineda Magno, a 14-year veteran Deputy District Attorney in LA, seeks a seat on…
LOS ANGELES – Sharon Arlanza Yost, a 33-year-old Filipina based in San Diego, is suing the United States government for negligence, false imprisonment and for negligent and intentional infliction of distress. Yost claims that Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents wrongfully imprisoned her from May to December 2011. She also alleges that ICE officials then…
THE First Reading of last Sunday’s Mass from the Book of Wisdom still echoes in my mind. “For you love all things that are and loathe nothing that you have made; for what you hated, you would not have fashioned. And how could a thing remain, unless you willed it; or be preserved, had it…
Are you struggling with debt problems? Are you doing your best to pay but simply can’t? Have you thought of filing bankruptcy but are afraid that this might not be the right solution to your problems? Filing bankruptcy is a personal decision that should be taken seriously. Whether or not it is necessary for you…
Who says nobody could equally serve two masters at a time? A majority of people fanatically subscribe to this adage but not the second generation Filipino-Canadian banker Marie Claire Lim Moore who, during the entire period of her pregnancy, was still able to utilize her mental faculties to the hilt by documenting her childhood memoirs…
By Peter Schurmann & Video: Jacob Simas – New America Media Ed. Note: In September former secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano took over as president of the University of California, the first-ever woman to hold that position. She now heads a $24 billion system of 10 campuses, five medical centers and three national laboratories….
LOS ANGELES—An alliance agreement signed on October 28 by the Philippine Consulate General in Los Angeles and the US Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division (US DOL WHD), Western and Southwest Regional Offices, aims to educate Filipino workers, both legal and illegal, on their rights to fair wages and working conditions. The alliance agreement…
Who says nobody could equally serve two masters at a time? A majority of people fanatically subscribe to this adage but not the second generation Filipino-Canadian banker Marie Claire Lim Moore who, during the entire period of her pregnancy, was still able to utilize her mental faculties to the hilt by documenting her childhood memoirs…
On a weekend trip to Las Vegas, Rosa, a United States citizen, ran into some old friends, and was introduced to a friend of a friend, Domingo, a tourist who just arrived on a B-2 visa. Rosa and Domingo quickly fell for each other and were convinced they were madly in love. After a week…
Dear Atty. Gurfinkel: I was able to receive my green card, but then the priority date on my petition retrogressed (went backwards) before I was able to bring my family from the Philippines. I have now been waiting several years, and the priority date is moving forward so slowly. Is there any other, or faster,…
HANDSOME actor Dingdong Dantes has never been without a project. Acknowledged by his home network, GMA 7 as their Primetime King, his shows on the primetime block have always been certified hits. Aside from managing his own film studio, AgostoDos Pictures, he is now focused on his new primetime series, Genesis. With its pilot episode…
Various complications and even deaths, like those of the three Filipino politicians a few months ago) have been reported following stem cell therapy. We are revisiting this issue to put in proper perspective the facts about this widely advertised form of therapy, which has been misrepresented and abused by some enterprising people. Stem cells are…
It’s been said that those to whom reading is important, gets started on books early. This specific human act of word-making and word-reading, the scanning of small black markers on plain surfaces (just like the movement of a camera), when it catches, becomes a kind disease — a fascination proliferating cancer of the mind. When…
THE fault of one man should not be taken as the fault of an entire nation. This was the point reiterated by President Benigno S. Aquino III, in stating his position over the apology demanded by the Hong Kong government from the Philippines. “Our position is the act of one individual who is probably mentally…
FUTURE LEADERS OF TOMORROW (I have a guest writer in this edition of my column. She is my 17-year-old daughter Katrina Relos, a senior high school student from San Mateo High School in California. Katrina delivered a powerful and inspiring speech before Filipina leaders from different parts of the world in the Filipina Women’s Network…
AS the Federal Government bogged down in its tiresome partisan war over the budget and Debt Ceiling last month, any hope for “immigration reform” was placed on indefinite hold. In California; however, Governor Brown signed legislation to enhance school, workplace and civil protections for California’s hardworking immigrants. “While Washington waffles on immigration, California’s forging ahead,”…
