Marriage License Requirements

Q. Hi ! Atty.Wong, I am presently engaged and planning to marry my girlfriend in the Philippines this coming May 2009. I am now a Canadian citizen. My girlfriend told me that there are legal formalities that I have to comply before being able to marry in the Philippines. I am now 28 years of age. Never been… Read More »

The Thoughts on Christmas in the Barrio

Every year Christmas comes to Christendom in unerring certainty. Symbolized by Christ child, Christmas is for children. However, this red letters day is likewise shared by the elders, for amongst them, there would always be the feeling and thoughts of childhood and the children in them. Christmas, to many of us, is the storehouse of our memories in… Read More »

How To Divide Inherited Estate

Q. Few years after my mother died, my father passed away in the Philippines. He left four (4) parcels of land in Tandang Sora, Quezon City. There are five of us siblings who will inherit from the property. I am the eldest. My other four siblings as well as my step-mother asserts that we should divide the estate… Read More »

The Cinderella President

In the popular movie “Pretty Woman”, there was this final scene of millionaire Edward played by Richard Gere climbing the fire escape of the apartment to claim his lady love, Vivian, (Julia Roberts) the former prostitute . At the same time a man crossing the street exclaim” This is Hollywood, the land of dreams. …. Some dreams come… Read More »

A Victory for Inequality

While America was upholding the result of decades of battle for civil rights by electing an African American to the presidency, tens of thousands of Californians were institutionalizing inequality, injustice and bigotry by passing Proposition 8, which sought to ban gay marriages in California. They wanted to include in the state constitution a provision that would deprive a… Read More »

Let Us Be a Part Of The Change

I got my copy of the Time Magazine this morning, the issue after the recent election in the United States. Of course, the front-page picture is that of the new president elect, Barack Obama. The caption: “Change has come to America.” The last US election campaign had been the main news in the previous three months. It caught… Read More »

Sadyang Ganyan Kaya Ang Kapalaran?

Tahimik si Carlos dela Riva nakahimlay sa sofa ng kanilang balkonahi at dinadama niya ang malamig na hagin na nagbubuhat sa bulubundukin ng Daly City, California. Sa kanyang pag-iisa ay laging sumasagi sa kanyang ala-ala ang kanyang buhay na sinasapit noong mga nakaraang panahon sa Maynila na siya kung tawagin ay “smart business tycoon” na owner ang manufacturer… Read More »

Keeping The Filipino Community Together In Canada

TORONTO, CANADA – Filipinos are today considered the fourth largest minority group in Canada, particularly in the Greater Toronto Area. The need to maintain community communication increases as their number expands numerically, economically, socially, and politically. The rapid growth of the community in the early 1970s brought a need to bring the Filipinos together and strengthen their connectedness… Read More »