~”Below zero” was how Rey Valera describes his life before fame and fortune beckoned. He was impoverished and living with relatives whose kindness he repaid by doing household chores for them. He found refuge among the dead, in a cemetery near where he stayed in Bulacan. That was his studio. Almost half of the hit songs he wrote was composed in… Read More »
When we talk to immigrants about things they most value in living in Canada, one of the first things they would mention is health care privileges. “You can rush to a doctor or a hospital with your health card and not worry that you do not have enough money to pay for the health care services you badly… Read More »
More than three months after super typhoon Yolanda wrought havoc on Leyte, Samar and other provinces in Central Visayas, the devastated cities look just slightly better than when they were a few days after the calamity struck. The affected people, hundreds of thousands of them, remain homeless, without source of income, without adequate food and basic necessities, without… Read More »
“Be bad, but at least don’t be a liar, a deceiver!” ― Leo Tolstoy, Anna Karenina The News UpFront: (TOP STORY) as of Monday, February 10, 2014 ~ From his notoriously flippant way of verbalizing his undisguised glee with expletives, Voltaire de Leon plays with words again. The phrase “the incident of theft” quite clearly conveys a fact… Read More »
This is by far the most costly Olympics ever – about fifty billion dollars! The preparation started seven years ago. At the time of the opening, there were hotel rooms that were not completed, unclean water was coming out of some faucets and guests who reserved rooms a long time ago found their accommodations occupied by other people.… Read More »
After boasting that the country will be self-sufficient in rice by 2013 and a rice exporter by 2014, it appears the Aquino administration is admitting failure and is giving up on these lofty goals. Malacanang announced last week that it was shifting its focus from attaining rice self-sufficiency to the farming of alternative, high-value crops such as pineapple,… Read More »
Imelda Marcos calls Gloria Arroyo’s continued hospital arrest “cruel, unjust and inhuman.” Look who’s talking. Mrs. Marcos adds that when President Aquino’s father, Ninoy, was the one incarcerated during martial law, her husband Ferdinand approved a trip to the United States so Ninoy could seek medical attention for his ailing heart. So why doesn’t the current president allow… Read More »
“Carpe diem quam minimum credula postero” (Seize the day, put little trust in tomorrow (future). – Odes Latin Poet Horace CHICAGO, Illinois (FAXXNA/jGLi) – When President Barack Obama mentioned the U.S. disaster relief in the Philippines during his State of the Union address last Tuesday (Jan. 28), it moved a gritty bunch of Filipino American leaders into action.… Read More »
Last February 5, the territory of Hongkong shall have begun the first of what it says is a series of sanctions for the Philippines that is expected to ‘convince’ the Philippine President to announce this country’s apology for the Luneta hostage- taking incident of 2010 that killed 8 Hongkong nationals and hurt 7 more, also from that Chinese… Read More »
When Gloria Macapagal Arroyo was caught in a storm of protests on June 27, 2005 following the Hello Garci scandal, wherein she was taped talking to Commission on Elections Commissioner Virgilio Garcillano about election results in Mindanao, she addressed the people to say “I… am… sorry” in a melodramatic tone. Nobody probably believed she was indeed sorry for… Read More »