As tens of thousands demonstrated across the United States Wednesday calling for comprehensive immigration reform, here in the nation’s capital, Filipino Americans joined religious congregations, civil rights groups and labor organizations to urge Congress to pass legislation that would legalize 11 million undocumented immigrants, reduce decades-long visa backlogs and protect family visas to reunite families.
Thousands of women and men plan to spend Valentine’s Day not on romantic dates but dancing on the streets in key cities all over the country to call for an end to violence against women.
The United Kingdom has warned its citizens against “demonstrations and large gatherings of people” in the Philippines, citing protests in several countries.
The United States Embassy has warned its citizens in the Philippines of protest actions expected to be held by different groups in remembrance of the 40th anniversary of the Martial Law declaration.
The Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) played down, on Tuesday, rumors that alleged foreign Islamic extremists might have slipped into the country to spark violence during local protest actions against the US-made film, “Innocence of Muslims,” which triggered unrest in several Muslim countries.
They are mere specks on the map. Many are uninhabited, and others sparsely so by fishermen and seasonal residents. Yet the disputed ownership of these tiny constellations of islands is inflaming nationalist fervor from the cold North Pacific to the tropical West Philippine Sea (South China Sea).
As China deployed more vessels to Scarborough Shoal, prominent Filipino-American civic leader Loida Nicolas-Lewis rallied on Wednesday all Filipinos around the world to mount a global rally against Chinese incursions into the shoal on May 11.
Balikbayan (returning Filipino) philanthropist, civil leader and lawyer Loida Nicolas-Lewis has called on the government to “show courage” by hitting back at China for “bullying” small countries like the Philippines and violating the country’s territorial sovereignty.
The obscure 2002 Mutual Logistics Support Agreement (MLSA) between the Philippines and the United States may hold the key to the increased US military access to the country, according to the militant group Bagong Alyansang Makabayan (Bayan).
The government has repatriated another 56 overseas Filipino workers from Syria, bringing to a little over 400 the total number of OFWs evacuated from the troubled Middle East country, according to the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA).
Majority of 17,000 Filipinos in Syria are working and living there illegally, making them more difficult to extricate from strife-torn areas, according to a migrant workers advocacy group.
