By: Rudy Viernes May is the merriest and most colorful month of the year in the Philippines. It is a month of fiestas, processions, Flores de Mayo, Santacruzan, Virgin Mary…and mangoes, too! In most little towns and villages the annual fiesta is an anticipated event held in May. Most part of the year the barrio perks up… Read More »
By Rudy M. Viernes Novato, California The Hospicio de San Jose in Manila is a Catholic charitable institution, managed since 1865 by the Daughters of Charity of St. Vincent de Paul. It is the foster home of orphans, children and adolescents abandoned or surrendered by their parents due to poverty. Some of these children have special needs. There… Read More »
On May 10, the Filipino people will troop to the polls to elect the man who would succeed Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, and who would be tasked with straightening up the mess that his predecessor had put the country into. Tough challenges await the winner, perhaps as tough, if not tougher than what the late President Cory Aquino had… Read More »
Q. I am a dual citizen now-Canadian/Filipino. When I took the oath we were told to present the certificate of being Filipino again plus the forms with our pictures/thumb marked, at the Philippine airport’s port of entry when we arrive there. If I do this at the port of entry in the Philippines, my understanding is that I… Read More »
Although we had expected a whitewash of the cases against the Ampatuans of Maguindanao because of the family’s close “friendship” to Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, the decision of Acting Justice Secretary Alberto Agra to drop murder charges against ARMM Gov. Zaldy Ampatuan and his cousin Akmad Ampatuan — even before the court could hear all testimonies and receive all… Read More »
I was passing by a small flower shop inside the Finch Subway when my attention was caught by a row of sampagita plants in pots. The label was jasmine, but I know it was the Philippine sampagita with its small white sweet-scented blossoms. I know many of us grow them indoors during the cold weather and put them… Read More »
Sen. Manny Villar and his party mates at the Nacionalista Party must be very desperate. Indeed, with less than a month to go before the elections, desperation would understandably set in when you still trail by double digit percentage points in surveys after spending millions of pesos peddling lies in full page advertisements and radio-TV commercials. … Read More »
Holy Week had just passed and once again, the Philippines was featured on television. Scenes from some areas were shown wherein men, the upper parts of their bodies naked, walked along the dusty roads, flagellating themselves on Good Friday. The “Penitensya” has become a tourist attraction that draws crowds from distant places, some of whom are foreigners to… Read More »
Q. Please help me see my way through the following dilemma: 1. My father died intestate, how are we to divide the properties left behind with our mother and four siblings? 2. Another concern is that my brother has been estranged from his legal wife for 30 years. He got a live-in-partner and adopted a son some 25… Read More »