Overseas Filipino voters can positively change the quality of Filipino leaders and the quality of Philippine government. In general, overseas voters cannot be bought or coerced.
Little notice has been given to the US Senate Bill known as the Border Security, Economic Opportunity and Immigration Modernization Act of 2013′s other provisions which allow for the immediate entry of family members of US citizens and Lawful Permanent Residents who have been waiting for years for immigrant visas to be available to them.
At the recently concluded Second Global Summit of Filipinos in the Diaspora, a major conference of Filipinos overseas held at Makati’s Dusit Hotel, attendees expressed frustration and anger at the summary decision by Comelec to remove the names of some 245,000 Filipinos overseas from its qualified voters list.
Recently, in the Oprah Winfrey Show, Lance Armstrong, the incredible seven time winner of the Tour de France cycling tournament, the most grueling competition in the sports world – shocked millions by confessing publicly that he used an array of Performance Enhancing Drugs (PEDs) in winning all seven events. Previously, he had repeatedly denied doping allegations.
The defeat of Pacquiao in the fight against Timothy Bradley was not really painful. Like the 80 out of 81 international boxing judges, Filipinos knew in their minds and hearts that their idol did not really lose that fight.
To immigrant communities and human rights advocates, having Mitt Romney as President is like unleashing thousands of pit bulls on the estimated 12 to 20 million undocumented immigrants living in the US.
Antonio’s US citizen brother filed an immigrant petition for him years ago. Antonio is married and had three minor children when the petition was filed. After years of waiting, visas finally became available for them. Antonio, his wife and two minor children got their immigrant visas. However, their eldest child Isabel, had already turned 23 and was left behind.
The poor we will always have in any society. The lack of opportunities, unfortunate circumstances, feeble intelligence, mental or emotional problems, illiteracy, government inefficiency and a host of other causes – result in poverty for a certain percentage of the population all the time. Even in wealthy countries like the United States, there are poor people.
My law office has been deluged with inquiries about the important policy announced by the Obama Administration allowing certain young aliens in illegal immigration status to be granted a kind of legal relief, get work permits, social security numbers, drivers’ licenses and also be able to travel abroad.
Former Philippine President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, now charged with plunder, election malfeasance and other high crimes – opened the door for the fox to enter the chicken coop when she entered into a controversial secret agreement allowing Chinese research vessels to extensively explore Philippine waters for oil and natural gas.
Vic and Guia (not their real names) – entered the United States on B-2 tourist visas with their daughter Violet who was then 2 years old. Because of a lack of job opportunities in the Philippines and low wages, Vic and Guia felt that the only chance that they had for a decent future was to live and work in the United States.
“Sometimes scorers of fights are incompetent. Sometimes they are more than incompetent, they are corrupt…..The bottom line is if you are an honest man…Pacquiao won that fight….It’s an injustice to the sport, it’s an injustice to the fighters and an injustice to the fan base,” commented well respected ESPN boxing commentator Teddy Atlas.
