H-1B workers’ babies will not get birthright citizenship under new Trump ban
BABIES born after February 20 to parents holding temporary work or student visas will not be eligible for birthright citizenship, under the provisions of an executive order signed by President Donald Trump.
The executive order applies to anyone who is not a lawful permanent resident, explained Aarti Kohli, executive director of the Asian Law Caucus, in an interview with Ethnic Media Services.
Media focus has largely been on undocumented residents. However, more than 1 million H-1B visa holders are in the green card queue, waiting to port their temporary visas into permanent status. But per-country caps, which state that no country can receive more than 7% of the green cards available that year, means that
Fil-Am attorney general addresses fears among undocumented immigrants
SAN DIEGO – California Attorney
General Rob Bonta has met with immigrant rights groups and elected officials in San Diego to discuss his office’s efforts to protect California’s immigrant communities.
The Jan. 24 meeting was the fifth and final regional meeting throughout the state where Bonta shared resources to let immigrants know their rights under the law.
“We’ve been preparing for this day for months — hearing concerns through these regional convenings and issuing guidance for immigrants, local law enforcement, prosecutors, school officials and public institutions, all in anticipation of the president attempting to see through his destructive immigration agenda,” Bonta said.
“I’m disappointed but not surprised by the president’s executive orders.”
“But I want to be clear that California will not waiver in its commitment to
24 Filipinos in US deported for crimes
by Jane Bautista Inquirer.net
MANILA — U.S. President Donald Trump’s mass deportation policy is now taking effect, with 24 Filipinos deported for alleged involvement in illegal activities in the United States, according to Philippine Ambassador to the United States Jose Manuel Romualdez.
“We have monitored around 24 Filipinos who have been deported from the United States due to their involvement in certain criminal activities, although these were not classified as
very serious offenses,” Romualdez said in an interview with dzBB on Sunday, January 26.
The ambassador reassured the public regarding the situation of undocumented Filipino immigrants, noting that some employers are committed to retaining their Filipino workers and are assisting them in securing their legal status.
Romualdez had previously said that the U.S. government would prioritize the deportation of individuals with criminal records, along with the 1.3 million immigrants who have already been processed.
WASHINGTON, D.C. — President Donald Trump’s foreign aid pause has forced a suspension of flights for more than 40,000 Afghans approved for special U.S. visas and at risk of Taliban retribution, a leading advocate and a United States official said on Saturday, January 25.
The stoppage was triggered by Trump’s order to halt foreign development aid for 90 days pending a review of efficiencies and consistency with his “America First” foreign policy.
Experts and advocacy groups say the foreign aid pause has led to chaos in U.S. and international aid
operations and halted nutrition, health, vaccination and other programs. The order also triggered a suspension by the Department of State of funds for groups that help Afghans with special immigrant visas (SIVs) find housing, schools and jobs in the United States.
Trump promised an immigration crackdown during his victorious 2024 reelection campaign.
Shawn VanDiver, head of #AfghanEvac, the main coalition of veterans and advocacy groups working with the U.S. government to evacuate and resettle those SIV holders, said he u PAGE 4
by Mary Villegas Inquirer.net
JANUARY 29 marked the beginning of the Chinese New Year, ushering in the Year of the Wood Snake.
Also known as Lunar New Year, it is celebrated in many
Asian countries, including the Philippines.
For many, it’s a time to set intentions for a prosperous year ahead.
This New Year celebration spans 15 days, lasting until the Lantern Festival on Feb.
The Department of Foreign Affairs, for its part, advised Filipino immigrants to “keep a low profile” and actively pursue regularizing their legal status in the United States.
Foreign Undersecretary Eduardo de Vega, speaking at a news forum over the weekend, recalled Trump’s comments about working with Democrats on addressing illegal aliens who do not fall under the categories of those targeted for deportation, particularly “criminals and terrorists.”
“That means they will create legal avenues u PAGE 2
Fil-Am community leaders react to Trump’s return as president
UNITED States President Donald Trump on Monday, January 20 entered his second presidency with a renewed mission to “make America great again,” prompting a range of reactions from Filipino American community leaders and members across the country.
Taking the oath of office at the Capitol Rotunda, Trump ushered in his return to power and the “Golden Age of America" by saying, “from this day forward, our country will flourish and be respected again all over the world."
Painting a contrast to the outgoing Biden administration, Trump described his ascent back to office as a “mandate” to "give the people back their faith, their wealth, their democracy and indeed their freedom. From this moment on, America's decline is over."
In his nearly 40-minute speech, the 78-yearold former businessman laid down his
MANILA — The Quezon City Prosecutor’s Office has dismissed the criminal cases filed by the Philippine National Police (PNP) against Vice President Sara Duterte and the chief of her security detail over an incident at the Veterans Memorial Medical Center (VMCC) last year.
In a 13-page resolution signed by assistant prosecutor Criscelyn Carayugan-Lugo, the
Quezon City Prosecutor’s Office cited the failure of the Quezon City Police District (QCPD) and the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG) to provide “prima facie evidence” to convict Duterte.
“The complaint for violation of Article 148 (direct assault), Article 151 (disobedience to authority) and Article 286 (grave coercion), all of the Revised Penal Code, against respondents Vice President Sara Zimmerman
Bella Cariaso Philstar.com
24 Filipinos in US deported...
to encourage productive overstaying aliens to become fully legalized. So, take advantage of that,” De Vega said.
He also emphasized that immigrants who are targeted for deportation still have legal options to contest the decision and remain in the United States for at least several months.
“Let’s see how good [their] immigration lawyers [are] because they would argue that you are doing something productive in
the United States, so you can stay. And sometimes, success can prevent your deportation,” he said.
De Vega further noted that the majority of Filipinos who entered the country did so with valid documentation, even if their visas have since expired, which differs from individuals who entered without any papers.
“It is almost impossible,”
De Vega said, “that the estimated 300,000 Filipinos without legal status in the United States will be deported by the end of the
Trump administration.”
During Trump’s first term, De Vega said that the United States deported “only a few hundred or less” undocumented Filipinos each month, which was fewer than during the Obama administration.
“Let’s see, for example, if in six months, 20,000 or 10,000 get deported, then the number really increased. Let’s not conclude anything until we see the data in six to eight months to determine if the number of deportations rises,” he said. n
Want good luck in 2025? Here are...
PAGE 1 PAGE 1
12.
Chinese New Year traditions, passed down from generation to generation, are believed to attract prosperity and good fortune.
Here are 10 traditions to usher in a prosperous new year.
10 Chinese New Year traditions to attract good fortune
1. Cleaning the house
On days leading to the Chinese New Year, families thoroughly clean their homes to sweep away the old and welcome the new. Taking a bath also symbolizes renewal.
2. Decorating homes in red Homes and businesses across the globe are adorned with red lanterns, red paper cuttings and spring couplets to attract good fortune and ward off evil.
After cleaning the house to “sweep away bad luck,” families decorate their homes in vibrant red, the color of prosperity.
3. Family reunion dinner Bringing families together and fostering connection, this family reunion dinner is one of the celebration highlights on Chinese New Year’s Eve.
In the Philippines, families
often serve traditional Chinese food like dumplings, fish, spring rolls and Tikoy — a sticky rice cake symbolizing prosperity and tight family bonds.
4. Lighting firecrackers or fireworks
Loud noise or explosions are believed to scare away evil spirits. The louder the noise, the more prosperous the year ahead will be, particularly for businesses.
5. Wearing new clothes and wishing others good luck
On New Year’s Day, wearing new clothes symbolizes a fresh start.
Wearing red is believed to attract luck and prosperity. Greeting others “gongxi” or best wishes is thought to usher in an auspicious year.
The younger generations opt for modern greetings, including virtual messages and WeChat red envelopes.
6. Dragon and lion dances Chinese enclaves worldwide, including Binondo, come alive with dragon and lion dances that are believed to chase away evil spirits and bring blessings of wealth and luck for the new year. Led by the “Pearl of Wisdom” — the dragon weaves through crowds and the lion’s movements are
accompanied by pounding drums and clashing cymbals.
7. Red envelopes
Known as “ang pao” in the Philippines and “hong bao” in China, these red envelopes filled with money are handed to kids and unmarried family members, symbolizing blessings of health and longevity.
8. Offering gifts to ancestors
Families honor their ancestors by offering wine, food and incense at gravesites or altars. This custom of showing respect ensures blessings for the new year.
9. Staying up late “Shousui,” which translates to “after the New Year’s Eve dinner,” is the Chinese New Year tradition of staying awake past midnight.
Also known as the New Year’s vigil, this tradition is believed to prolong the lives of parents and welcome a bountiful year.
10. Festival of lanterns The Lantern Festival marks the end of the Chinese New Year celebrations. This tradition aims to promote peace, reconciliation and forgiveness.
People decorate their homes with colorful lanterns and many carry paper lanterns around at night. n
Fil-Am community leaders react to Trump’s...
agenda, ranging from mass deportations of “criminal aliens” by declaring “a national emergency at our southern border” to the ambitious space race.
"We will pursue our manifest destiny into the stars by launching American astronauts to plant the Stars and Stripes on the planet Mars," Trump said.
As one of the fastestgrowing immigrant groups in the U.S., Filipino Americans hold diverse political views and priorities, which were evident in their responses — ranging from both optimism and apprehension — to Trump’s return to the White House.
Rudy Asercion, an active member of the San Francisco Republican Party, declared that “American exceptionalism is back!”
"With a focus on rebuilding our economy, improving foreign policy, achieving energy independence, and securing our southern border, I am confident that Trump’s administration will yield meaningful outcomes for the American people,
and I eagerly anticipate the promising days ahead,” he told the Asian Journal
Cristina Osmeña, a community leader who previously ran as the Republican nominee for California’s 14th Congressional District, said she “took a sigh of relief” after Biden left office.
"In the last four years, the world has seen two war fronts open up and an American ally fallen to terrorists. The United States flirted with an experiment in modern monetary theory, creating a surge in inflation no one could ignore. And our culture has become paralyzed by the epidemic of treating falsehoods as truths. That is all over. Common sense is making a comeback,” she wrote in an e-mail.
Marc Ang, a Southern California-based conservative community organizer and entrepreneur, likewise expressed eagerness and support for Trump’s second term, sharing that the president is more equipped with the inner workings of the government to push
his agenda and follow the “smartest solution” on issues like immigration.
“All the fear that’s coming from the left is overblown. Just watch, he’s going to do what’s best for the people,” Ang told the Asian Journal, echoing Trump’s premise to “bring back competence and common sense. That’s the feeling that most Americans have, regardless of ideology.”
“I’m willing to put my ideologies aside just to see practical results come in that help more people than hurt more people,” he said, adding that the 2024 election outcome demonstrated that “a lot of minorities were affected by the downturn of the economy.”
“I have seen an evolution in many of my Filipino American community partners, as well as my Hispanic American community partners, who were formerly voting against [Trump] and came around and expanded that coalition for him this time around because it was about bottomline issues.” u PAGE 4
MEET AND GREET. Former Manila Mayor Francisco “Isko Moreno” Domagoso (on stage, standing) meets with elderly citizens at
a mall near the city hall on Tuesday, January 28. Domagoso served Manila for one term, ran but lost in the 2022 presidential elections, and will challenge incumbent Mayor Honey Lacuna in the May 12 elections.
PNA
photo by Yancy Lim
What a US exit from the WHO means for global health
FOR decades, the United States has held considerable power in determining the direction of global health policies and programs.
President Donald Trump issued three executive orders on his first day in office that may signal the end of that era, health policy experts said.
Trump’s order to withdraw from the World Health Organization means the U.S. will probably not be at the table in February when the WHO executive board next convenes. The WHO is shaped by its members: 194 countries that set health priorities and make agreements about how to share critical data, treatments, and vaccines during international emergencies. With the U.S. missing, it would cede power to others.
“It’s just stupid,” said Kenneth Bernard, a visiting fellow at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University who served as a top biodefense official during the George W. Bush administration.
“Withdrawing from the WHO leaves a gap in global health leadership that will be filled by China,” he said, “which is clearly not in America’s best interests.”
Executive orders to withdraw from the WHO and to reassess America’s approach to international assistance cite the WHO’s “mishandling of the COVID-19 pandemic” and say that U.S. aid serves “to destabilize world peace.” In action, they echo priorities established in Project 2025’s “Mandate for Leadership,” a conservative policy blueprint from the Heritage Foundation.
The 922-page report says the U.S. “must be prepared” to withdraw from the WHO, citing its “manifest failure,” and advises an overhaul to international aid at the State
Department. “The Biden Administration has deformed the agency by treating it as a global platform to pursue overseas a divisive political and cultural agenda that promotes abortion, climate extremism, gender radicalism, and interventions against perceived systemic racism,” it says.
As one of the world’s largest funders of global health — through both international and national agencies, such as the WHO and the U.S. Agency for International Development — America’s step back may curtail efforts to provide lifesaving health care and combat deadly outbreaks, especially in lower-income countries without the means to do so alone.
“This not only makes Americans less safe, it makes the citizens of other nations less safe,” said Tom Bollyky, director of global health at the Council on Foreign Relations.
“The U.S. cannot wall itself off from transnational health threats,” he added, referring to policies that block travelers from countries with disease outbreaks. “Most of the evidence around travel bans indicates that they provide a false sense of security and distract nations from taking the actions they need to take domestically to ensure their safety.”
Less Than 1%
Technically, countries cannot withdraw from the WHO until a year after official notice. But Trump’s executive order cites his termination notice from 2020. If Congress or the public pushes back, the administration can argue that more than a year has elapsed.
Trump suspended funds to the WHO in 2020, a measure that doesn’t require congressional approval. U.S. contributions to the agency hit a low of $163 million during that first year of covid, falling behind Germany and the Gates Foundation.
Former President Joe Biden
restored U.S. membership and payments. In 2023, the country gave the WHO $481 million.
As for 2024, Suerie Moon, a co-director of the global health center at the Geneva Graduate Institute, said the Biden administration paid biennium dues for 2024-25 early, which will cover some of this year’s payments.
“Unfairly onerous payments” are cited in the executive order as a reason for WHO withdrawal. Countries’ dues are a percentage of their gross domestic product, meaning that as the world’s richest nation, the United States has generally paid more than other countries.
Funds for the WHO represent about 4% of America’s budget for global health, which in turn is less than 0.1% of U.S. federal expenditures each year. At about $3.4 billion, the WHO’s entire budget is roughly a third of the budget for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which got $9.3 billion in core funding in 2023.
The WHO’s funds support programs to prevent and treat polio, tuberculosis, HIV, malaria, measles, and other diseases, especially in countries that struggle to provide health care domestically. The organization also responds to health emergencies in conflict zones, including places where the U.S. government doesn’t operate — in parts of Gaza, Sudan, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, among others.
In January 2020, the WHO alerted the world to the danger of the covid outbreak by sounding its highest alarm: a public health emergency of international concern. Over the next two years, it vetted diagnostic tests and potential drugs for covid, regularly updated the public, and advised countries on steps to keep citizens safe. Experts have cited u PAGE 4
H-1B workers’ babies will not get birthright...
the wait time for a green card could stretch as long as 8 decades.
More than 70% of H-1B visa holders are highlyskilled workers from India.
Stateless Children born in the U.S. to parents holding H-1B or H-4 visas would essentially be stateless, said Kohli. They would be unable to access public health and nutrition support programs. And while they are eligible to attend elementary school, they may be ineligible to attend college or university, depending on the state they live in, she said.
“The executive order will be devastating because it will undermine one of the key principles in America. No matter where you come from, you can come here, and within a generation you belong. You are part of this society,” stated Kohli. “There are very few countries in the world which have that level of quick integration,” she said.
Immigrant underclass
“In so many ways it benefits our country, both culturally, socially, economically, to not have created an underclass of
Lawsuits
“For some people, they have no country to go back to. They’re stateless,” said Kohli.
Several civil rights organizations and 22 states immediately filed lawsuits after Trump signed the order. On January 23, Federal District Court Judge John Coughenour issued an injunction, blocking implementation of the executive order for at least 14 days. The judge stated the executive order was unconstitutional. (Sunita Sohrabji/ Ethnic Media Services)
immigrants.” The executive order would create administrative burdens for all parents, said Kohli, noting that everyone would have to prove citizenship or legal permanent residency when applying for benefits for their children, or getting their kids’ social security cards. It is unclear whether hospitals would be banned from issuing birth certificates to children of parents who are not lawful permanent residents, said Kohli. She noted that getting a birth certificate or citizenship from the parents’ home country could also be problematic.
Unahan ang magnanakaw ng identidad
Ginamit ba ng isang tao ang impormasyon mo — tulad ng pangalan, numero ng credit card o Social Security mo — nang walang pahintulot mo? Bumili ba sila ng mga bagay, nagbukas ng mga account, kumuha ng trabaho o medikal na paggamot, o ninakaw ang tax refund mo? Kung gayon, ninakaw nila ang identidad mo.
Protektahan ang sarili mo laban sa magnanakaw ng identidad.
• Panatilihing naka-lock up ang mga dokumentong may personal na impormasyon
• Huwag kailanman ibahagi ang numero ng Social Security o credit card mo sa isang taong nakikipag-ugnayan sa iyo nang hindi inaasahan
• Huwag i-click ang mga link sa mga hindi inaasahang email o text message
• Suriin ang bills mo para tingnan ang mga hindi inaasahang singil
• Maglagay ng freeze sa mga credit report mo
NEVER AGAIN. Quezon City Mayor Joy Belmonte lights candles, with Israel Ambassador to the Philippines Ilan Fluss (left) looking on, during International Holocaust Remembrance Day at the Philippine-Israel Friendship Park inside the Quezon Memorial Circle on Tuesday, January 28. Belmonte said the candles represent unfulfilled dreams, hopes, and potentials, which were painfully extinguished when some six million Jews and other members of minority groups were exterminated by the Nazi Germany between 1933 and 1945. PNA photo by Ben Briones
Trump’s executive order banning birthright citizenship broadly applies to many residents without lawful permanent status. Unsplash.com photo by DICSON
Fil-Am community leaders react to Trump’s...
Ang, who is also a small business owner, praised Trump’s executive order pausing the law banning popular social media platform TikTok for 75 days. Ang asserted that a significant population of the 170 million Americans on TikTok are small business owners, including many Fil-Am-owned ventures ranging from lifestyle brands to food vendors, that use the platform to boost their businesses.
“[Trump] understood the impact of that and acted accordingly, while Congress — Republicans and Democrats — were willing to let that go dark and including former President Biden so that was one of the exciting things for me,” Ang said.
In his inauguration speech, Trump stated that “the entire nation is rapidly unifying behind our agenda with dramatic increases in support from virtually every element of our society,” including Asian Americans.
On January 15, a new AAPI Data/AP-NORC survey found that 31% of Asian American, Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander (AAPI) adults believe the country is heading in the right direction.
Within the AAPI community, AAPI Data noted Trump had greater support among certain demographics, including Filipinos, Native Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders, men, and those aged 60 and older.
Filipino Americans had the highest levels of Trump favorability among Asian Americans, with 47% saying they were “very or somewhat favorable” of Trump, versus 45% who said “very/ somewhat unfavorable.” Some issues that Fil-Ams surveyed weighed in on included deportation of undocumented immigrants in the U.S., with 43% of FilAms saying they strongly/ somewhat favor the action.
Hon. Melissa Ramoso, California Democratic Party State Chair Emerita for
AAPI and Filipino American Caucuses, expressed deep concern about Trump’s immediate actions on his first day in office. Trump signed executive orders reversing several policies from the Biden administration, including measures addressing climate change, supporting local economies, and advocating for inclusivity.
"It was no surprise that President Trump started to carry out Executive Orders on day one to reverse all the hard work that President Biden’s Administration did to protect families, address climate change, advocate for service workers, assist local economies, advance science and health policies, be inclusive of LGBTQ rights, and so much more," Ramoso told the Asian Journal
She criticized Trump’s decision to withdraw from the World Health Organization (WHO) and the Paris Climate Accords, saying these moves as a signal that such global issues are no longer a priority for the U.S. Ramoso lamented the divisiveness that she believes will continue during Trump’s second term.
"It was evident a sense of trust was lost after the election, and we have to do everything in our power to gain that trust back from Americans," she concluded, emphasizing the need for Democrats to reassess and reengage with the American people.
In Las Vegas, civic leader Gloria Caoile focused on the importance of resilience and optimism.
"We need to continue to live and character our principles. Good governance requires positive energy and pragmatism, and so we look forward to the next four years with hope and optimism," Caoile said.
Neil Ferrer, the Philippine Consul General in San Francisco, struck a more diplomatic tone, focusing on the peaceful transfer of power as a hallmark of American democracy. While acknowl-
edging potential impacts on Filipino nationals, he reaffirmed the Consulate’s commitment to supporting the community.
"In his inaugural address, President Trump outlined his priorities that may impact Filipino citizens in the United States. On changes in U.S. immigration policy, the Philippine Consulate General in San Francisco is committed to extending appropriate assistance to Filipino nationals across its jurisdiction regardless of immigration status, while respecting U.S. laws as well as individual privacy," Ferrer stated.
He also expressed hope for strengthened ties between the Philippines and the United States, noting the importance of recent diplomatic engagements, including Philippine Ambassador Jose Manuel Romualdez’s meeting with President Trump and a call between Philippine Secretary for Foreign Affairs Enrique Manalo and U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio.
Meanwhile, the Philippine Embassy in Washington issued an advisory that “Filipinos in the United States have rights, regardless of their immigration status,” including the right to speak to an attorney before answering any questions from immigration or law enforcement. The Embassy and Consulates General throughout the country have made their 24/7 hotlines available to ensure that “Filipinos are informed, safe and supported” in the event they need help.
There are currently over 300,000 undocumented Filipinos living in the United States. The Philippine Department of Migrant Workers (DMW) said it would be ready to assist should they be deported back to their home country.
During Trump’s first term in the White House, over 3,500 Filipinos were deported between 2017 to 2020, according to the DMW, with the highest being recorded in 2018 with 503. n
Fil-Am attorney general addresses fears...
upholding the rights and protections of all of our residents, including the nearly 11 million immigrants who call this state home,” the Filipino American attorney general added.
“We hear your concerns, and we will continue to use the full force of the law and tools of this office to stand up for you.”
The wide-ranging protections include the right to emergency medical care, the right to apply for secure housing without sharing immigration status and the right to an attorney.
Local and state law enforcement cannot ask for individuals’ immigration status, share personal information or assist Immigration and Customs Enforcement with immigration enforcement, with very limited exceptions.
Additionally, Bonta’s office backed students’ rights, allowing anyone to receive an education regardless of
immigration status.
Finally, the attorney general warned of several scams targeting immigrants, advising them not to give money or personal information to anyone calling, texting or emailing you, as “no federal or state agency, including USCIS, will ever ask for your personal information or payment over the phone, by email or text.”
“If you need help applying for immigration relief, be careful who you hire,” a statement from Bonta’s office
read. “Watch out for immigration scams that can cost you thousands of dollars and/ or harm your immigration status.”
Those who believe their rights have been violated may reach out to the California Department of Justice. Those who believe their rights were subject to discrimination, harassment or retaliation may report their case to the California Civil Rights Department. (Inquirer. net with CNS report)
Flights for US-bound Afghan refugees...
does not believe that the flight suspension was intentional.
“We think it was a mistake,” VanDiver said, adding that he hoped the administration would grant exemptions to the Afghans with SIVs because they worked for the U.S. government during the 20year war that ended when the last batch of American troops withdrew from Afghanistan in August 2021.
“They fought alongside us. They bled alongside us,” said VanDiver, who pointed out that tens of thousands of other Afghans were waiting for SIV applications to be processed.
The White House and state department did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Uncertain future
Reports by the United Nations’ mission in Afghanistan say the Taliban have detained, tortured and killed former soldiers and officials of the previous U.S.backed government. The Taliban issued a general amnesty for former troops and government officials and deny the allegations.
The flight suspension has stranded more than 40,000 Afghans, including SIV holders who have been
waiting to fly to the United States from visa processing centers in Qatar and Albania, said VanDiver and the U.S. official, who spoke on condition of anonymity.
That number also includes Afghans approved for SIVs who have been waiting in Afghanistan and Pakistan to be put on U.S.-funded flights to the Doha and Tirana processing centers to receive their visas, they said.
Nearly 200,000 Afghans have been resettled in the United States on SIVs or as refugees since the chaotic 2021 U.S. withdrawal.
In a separate executive order that he signed hours after his inauguration on Monday, January 20, Trump suspended all U.S. refugee resettlement programs.
That order resulted in hundreds of Afghan refugees losing their seats on flights, including family members of active-duty AfghanAmerican military personnel, former Afghan soldiers and unaccompanied children.
PH hosted Afghans The Philippines also hosted around 200 Afghans, around 60 percent of them minors, who arrived in Manila earlier this month while waiting for their SIV applications to be processed. They left the country
between Jan. 15 and Jan. 17 on commercial flights, days ahead of Trump’s inauguration on Jan. 21 (Manila time).
Under an agreement between Washington and Manila signed in 2024, the U.S. government provided all necessary services for the SIV applicants during their temporary stay in the Philippines—including food, housing, medical care, security and transportation— until their visas were processed.
The Afghans stayed in a secure, undisclosed billet facility and were allowed to leave only once to attend their consular interview at the U.S. Embassy in Manila. The embassy had announced earlier that up to 300 Afghans were expected to participate in the visa processing program, but U.S. Embassy spokesperson Kanishka Gangopadhyay said some dropped out due to medical issues or other considerations.
“The government of the United States extends deep appreciation to the government of the Philippines for their cooperation and support for U.S. efforts to assist Afghan special immigrants,” Gangopadhyay said earlier. (Inquirer.net)
Prosecutors junk assault, disobedience...
Duterte-Carpio and Col. Raymundo Dante Petina Lachica, is recommended to be dismissed for failure to sustain a finding of prima facie evidence with reasonable certainty of conviction,” the ruling read.
The resolution was approved by prosecutor Vimar Barcellano.
The complainant was Lt. Col. Van Jason Villamor of the QCPD’s district medical and dental unit, whom Lachica shoved during a commotion at the VMMC on Nov. 23, 2024, when Duterte’s chief of staff Zuleika Lopez was about to be transferred to St. Luke’s Medical Center.
“The alleged commission of direct assault, disobedience to authority
and grave abuse is not supported by evidence.
Interestingly, not one of the witnesses of PLtCol Villamor corroborated his claims regarding the purported attack, employment of physical force, intimidation, resistance, disobedience, violence and threats,” the resolution added.
According to the QC Prosecutors’ Office, the police failed to narrate the encounter between the parties in their respective affidavits.
“They also did not discuss the behavior of PLtCol Villamor after the incident, which could have persuaded us that he was threatened and intimidated, if at all.
The video footage submitted by him also negates his own asseverations. Being
so, we are constrained to dismiss the complaint for insufficiency of evidence,” the ruling added.
The QC Fiscal’s Office cited Department of Justice Department Circular 15, Series of 2024, increased the quantum of evidence for preliminary investigation cases from probable cause to prima facie evidence with reasonable certainty of conviction.
“Here, such quantum of evidence was not reached because the evidence-athand, vis-à-vis the defenses raised, are insufficient to establish all the elements of the crimes charged, and to warrant a conviction beyond reasonable doubt,” the resolution added. (With reports from Emmanuel Tupas)
What a US exit from the WHO means...
missteps at the agency, but numerous analyses show that internal problems account for the United States’ having one of the world’s highest rates of death due to covid. “All nations received the WHO’s alert of a public health emergency of international concern on Jan. 30,” Bollyky said. “South Korea, Taiwan, and others responded aggressively to that — the U.S. did not.”
‘It’s a Red Herring’ Nonetheless, Trump’s executive order accuses the WHO of “mishandling” the pandemic and failing “to adopt urgently needed reforms.” In fact, the WHO has made some changes through bureaucratic processes that involve input from the countries belonging to it. Last year, for example, the organization passed several amendments to its regulations on health
emergencies. These include provisions on transparent reporting and coordinated financing.
“If the Trump administration tried to push for particular reforms for a year and then they were frustrated, I might find the reform line credible,” Moon said. “But to me, it’s a red herring.”
“I don’t buy the explanations,” Bernard said. “This is not an issue of money,” he added. “There is no rationale to withdraw from the WHO that makes sense, including our problems with China.”
Trump has accused the WHO of being complicit in China’s failure to openly investigate covid’s origin, which he alludes to in the executive order as “inappropriate political influence.”
“The World Health Organization disgracefully
covered the tracks of the Chinese Communist Party every single step of the way,” Trump said in a video posted to social media in 2023. On multiple occasions, the WHO has called for transparency from China. The agency doesn’t have the legal authority to force China, or any other country, to do what it says. This fact also repudiates Trump’s warnings that a pandemic treaty under negotiation at the WHO impinges on American sovereignty. Rather, the accord aims to lay out how countries can better cooperate in the next pandemic.
Trump’s executive order calls for the U.S. to “cease negotiations” on the pandemic agreement. This means the pharmaceutical industry may lose one of its staunchest defenders as discussions move forward.
u PAGE 7
California Attorney General Rob Bonta Photo from Facebook/@RobBonta
by Charie aBarCa Inquirer.net
MANILA — “Hindi ito dapat katakutan, hindi ito dapat ikabahala.”
(It should not be feared, it should not be a cause for concern.)
These were the words used by Senate President Chiz Escudero when he was asked on Tuesday, January 28 to comment on the petition that questions the alleged blank items in the bicameral conference committee report of the 2025 national spending plan. The petition was filed by Davao Representative Isidro Ungab and former Executive Secretary Vic Rodriguez before the Supreme Supreme Court.
“We welcome any petitions to question any law that Congress passes.
Para sa akin oportunidad yan para makilahok din sa proseso ng budget ang Korte Suprema — ang third branch, ika nga, ng pamahalaan. Nakita natin ang papel na ginampanan ng Executive Branch, ng Legislative Branch, at ngayon makikita naman
DAteline PhiliPPines
natin ang papel na gagampanan ng Judicial Branch,” said Escudero. Para sa akin, hindi ito dapat katakutan. Hindi ito dapat ikabahala. Ito ay bahagi ng ating demokrasya at patunay ito na malakas at matatag ang demokrasya sa ating bansa patungkol sa anumang batas, kabilang na ang national budget,” he added.
Prior to this, Marikina 2nd District Rep. Stella Quimbo confirmed that there were blank items in the bicameral conference committee report on the 2025 national budget, but she clarified these were only for the final computation of the amendments made.
For his part, Escudero said if there were, indeed, blank items, then the last provision of the report would be helpful.
According to the Senate chief, this states that the committee on finance and appropriations is “authorized to fill out any lapses and missing items” in the proposed budget.
“At kung merong conflict [o] pagkakaiba, ang bicameral conference committee report at ang
enrolled bill ng budget, ang mananaig [pa rin] ay ang enrolled bill ng budget o ang GAA kung saan wala pong blangko at kulang doon,” said Escudero.
The Senate chief then emphasized that it was not the first time that this phrase was used as it was already included in the bicameral conference committee reports signed by previous Congress.
But is it the first time that there have been blank items in the budget? Escudero believes it’s not.
“Hindi mo masasabing walang ganyan noon. Marahil ang pagkakaiba, dahil sa tindi ng bangayan at away at hidwaan sa pagitan ng mga kulay ng pulitika sa ngayon kaya bawat isang bagay ay pinapadaan nila, ika nga, sa microscope,” said Escudero.
“Pero hindi nangangahulugan na hindi rin yan nangyari noon. Uulitin ko, hindi ko ito kinatatakutan, ito ay dapat yakapin natin bilang pagkakataon na makita ang tatlong ahensya ng pamahalaan na nagfa-function kaugnay sa napakahalagang panukalang batas,” he added. n
Senate Prtesident Chiz Escudero
by Julie m aurelio Krixia suBingsuBing Inquirer.net
MANILA — A senior foreign affairs official on Saturday said the suspension of U.S. foreign aid globally was unlikely to severely affect the Philippines even as Malacañang tried to grasp the implications of the move ordered by U.S. President Donald Trump.
At a press forum on Saturday, January 25, Foreign Undersecretary Eduardo Jose de Vega noted that the Philippines had many economic partners like the United States.
“And while the U.S. involvement in our economy as a trading partner is still very high, I think even with the freeze, it’s not like it’s going to severely affect us because the aid packages from the US are small right now,” he said.
De Vega stressed, however, the importance of “people-to-people ties and certainly the Mutual Defense Treaty” between the two countries.
The Philippines is a
longtime ally of the United States in the Indo-Pacific, where China’s aggressive actions in the South China Sea are seen as a threat to peace and security in the region.
DFA monitoring Presidential Communications Office Secretary Cesar Chavez told the Inquirer that the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) was closely monitoring reports on the freeze order as it continued to work with “partners in the U.S. Department of State and the U.S. government to determine how this will affect the Philippines.”
De Vega told the news forum that Manila “will use diplomatic channels and back-channeling” with Washington and that the Philippine Ambassador to the United States, Jose Manuel Romualdez, was “very active” in this.
Rubio memo
The U.S. aid freeze order was sent out in an internal memo on Friday, January 24 by Secretary of State Marco Rubio days after Trump took office vowing an “America First” policy of
tightly restricting assistance overseas.
It paused virtually all foreign aid, except for emergency food programs and military aid to Israel and Egypt.
“No new funds shall be obligated for new awards or extensions of existing awards until each proposed new award or extension has been reviewed and approved,” said the memo seen by news organizations in Washington.
The sweeping order appears to affect everything from development assistance to military aid—including to Ukraine, which received billions of dollars in weapons under Trump’s predecessor Joe Biden as it tries to repel a Russian invasion.
Other states identified for military financing in 2025 include Ukraine, Georgia, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Taiwan, Indonesia, the Philippines, Thailand, Vietnam, Djibouti, Colombia, Panama, Ecuador and Jordan, according to a request to Congress from the Biden administration.
photo
OPiniOn FeAtures
‘A
deepening crisis’
THE official campaign period is set to start soon, first for Senate aspirants and then for candidates in the House of Representatives and local governments. Lawmakers will become busy with their campaigns and congressional probes will have to be wrapped up.
In the past months, various committees in both chambers of Congress have unearthed testimonies and information about wrongdoing including alleged misuse of public funds in certain agencies. The amounts involved could warrant indictments for plunder or at least multiple counts of graft and corruption.
Editorial
As the congressional inquiries are wrapped up, government prosecutors must step in and pursue the probes. This is the call of over 500 education stakeholders, who have signed a statement sounding the alarm on the “deepening crisis” in the sector that they say has been aggravated by “widespread corruption and lessened prioritization” of the budget for the Department of Education.
DepEd Secretary Sonny Angara’s lament about the nearly P12 billion slashed from the 2025 budget of the department, which was meant for public schools’ computerization programs, triggered a closer scrutiny of this year’s General Appropriations Act. The resulting public uproar over what was uncovered has refused to die down. This
Babe’s Eye
UPON direct instructions of the president, we arranged for Defense Secretary Gilbert Teodoro, who flew into Washington D.C., to meet with newly appointed National Security Advisor Michael Waltz at the White House. After our short meeting with the National Security Advisor, we proceeded to have an expanded meeting with Principal Deputy National Security Advisor Alex Wong as well as Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense Andrew Byers and National Security Council Senior Director for Asia Ivan Kanapathy at the West Wing of the White House. Both meetings were extremely productive, where we focused on serious security issues and the reaffirmation of the enduring alliance between the Philippines and the United States.
“THEY say that I was a terrible president of Cuba. That may be true. But I was the best president Cuba ever had,” remarked the exiled Cuban leader Carlos Manuel Prío Socarrás. In many ways, a similar narrative has undergirded the so-called “Duterte magic.” Time and again, former president Rodrigo Duterte has admitted to shortcomings, but just to claim that, at the very least, he did something about national crises no matter how incompetent or catastrophic. Whenever confronted with evidence of misdeed or misgovernance, Duterte supporters are quick to lean back their usual retort: “At least, he did something about drugs and criminality!” This ”cult of action,” the Italian philosopher Umberto Eco once argued, is central to
year’s national outlay has been condemned as a GAA in aid of lawmakers’ election campaign.
The signatories to the statement that has been released include administrators and faculty of top state-run and private universities, members of education workers’ unions and several education advocacy groups. Years before the pandemic, concerns were already being raised over the decline in the quality of Philippine education. The concerns were validated when the government decided to participate for the first time in the Program for International Student Assessment in 2018. The results were dismal, with the country’s 15-yearold students ranking at the bottom in mathematics, science and reading competencies.
In 2022, the country again participated in the PISA, which is administered by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. The disappointing results were the same, although this was not surprising, considering that the assessment
was undertaken as the country was emerging from two years of COVID-related school lockdowns.
Signatories to the statement lament that corruption in the education sector – as unearthed in the congressional hearings – and now aggravated by the funding priorities of lawmakers have deepened the crisis in a sector that is critical to national competitiveness and development.
The rot in the system must be excised. This requires not only improvements in the quality of education but also ensuring that funds for the sector are properly allocated and not misused. Prosecutors must not waste the findings of the congressional inquiries. Public officials must be held accountable before impunity becomes entrenched and the education crisis deepens further.
(Philstar.com)
On the move with the new Trump presidency
Secretary Teodoro emphasized both nations’ shared commitment to peace, stability and mutual security interests in the Indo-Pacific region, and the paramount importance of strengthening the bilateral defense ties between the Philippines and the United States to address emerging geopolitical challenges. These meetings took place two days after the inauguration of President Donald Trump, making the Philippines one of the first countries to engage with the new administration – a very significant step in further advancing our longtime alliance, with both sides expressing optimism in deepening defense and security cooperation in the years to come. Additionally, there was also a telephone conversation between Foreign Affairs Secretary Ricky Manalo and State Secretary Marco Rubio in the morning (Washington D.C. time) on issues of mutual concern, among them the dangerous actions of China in the South China
Sea that undermine regional peace and stability. They also exchanged views on advancing security cooperation and expanding economic ties for shared prosperity.
Secretary Rubio, who underscored the “ironclad” commitment of the U.S. to the Philippines under the 1951 Mutual Defense Treaty, certainly recognizes the importance of strengthening economic – not just defense or military – ties, for the bilateral relationship to be enduring.
“When your engagement with a country leads to economic development, whether it’s outbound U.S. investment in the Philippines or what have you, then that becomes enduring. Then it makes it difficult, no matter who’s in charge, to walk away from the alliance, because the alliance is more than just military and a military presence. It also involves jobs and businesses and investment and economic opportunity, and we need to look for ways to emphasize that. I think it would be a
mistake to simply view it as a military or defense alliance,” Secretary Rubio stated during his confirmation hearing.
We are looking forward to working closely with Secretary Rubio’s team at the State Department in advancing shared priorities and strengthening U.S.Philippines ties even further.
As I have emphasized on several occasions, we have strong support from both Republicans and Democrats, and we will continue to work with them on issues that are mutually beneficial – because this relationship is a two-way street. I also know that the U.S. sees the Philippines as an important ally, especially at this time. This bipartisan support from members of the U.S. Congress was evident during my meeting last Thursday at the U.S. Capitol with Democratic Senator Brian Schatz of Hawaii, who is a member of the Senate foreign relations committee. “Ambassador Romualdez and I had a constructive discussion about opportunities and challenges
in the Indo-Pacific. We discussed how we can better coordinate and strengthen U.S. military and economic support to the Philippines and further elevate our alliance,” he shared in his website, adding, “We have a long, close relationship with the Philippines and the Filipino people, and our commitment to the U.S.Philippine alliance remains ironclad.”
During the inauguration of President Trump and the social events that followed shortly thereafter, I also had the opportunity to engage with “old and new faces” who will be taking on important roles in the Trump administration for the next four years to bring our relationship to even greater heights. We also hosted a reception at the Philippine embassy, bringing together representatives from the new government, the U.S. Congress and members of the media, among several other sectors.
In my interview with Karen Davila of ANC, I amply described how our
relationship with the United States will be like under the new Trump administration. Naturally, an issue of great concern is the new immigration policy and its impact on the estimated 350,000 undocumented Filipinos in the United States. Clear instructions have already been given to all consulates general in the United States on what we can do to help our kababayans regardless of their immigration status. Early this month, we met with members of a group called Filipino American Legal Defense and Education Fund (FALDEF) to discuss the challenges faced by undocumented Filipinos and shared insights on how those affected can have access to legal counsel and how they can have a legal path to stay in the U.S. FALDEF representatives led by their president Jose Teodoro Mallonga are also offering pro bono legal services and partnering with other Filipino community
both the ideology and appeal of authoritarian populist leaders.
Drenched in the awesome power of the state, and crowned with a decisive electoral mandate and sky-high approval ratings, Duterte seamlessly inspired admiration and fear among the majority of Filipinos throughout his six years in Malacañang. But the past two years have seen a steady diminution of the notorious dynasty’s political capital, even as the Dutertes held onto the country’s largest urban center in terms of land area as well as the second most powerful office in the land. The reason was simple: They overreached by directly attacking their chief ally, the Marcoses, who have shown little interest in squandering their second shot at Malacañang.
Blinded by hubris, the Dutertes thought that they could just bludgeon President Marcos into submission
and, accordingly, become the ”power behind the throne.” That foolhardy plan, however, has catastrophically backfired. The upshot was the concatenation of multiple forces, which threatened the very political survival of the Dutertes: A dramatic series of exposes of the Dutertes’ multifarious wrongdoings went hand in hand with the real and present threat of impeachment against the vice president. By the end of 2024, the once mighty dynasty was a cornered beast. And then, all of a sudden, the tide shifted in favor of the Dutertes. On one hand, it always helps to have a well-organized religious group behind you to muster a million-strong ”peace rally” to intimidate your opponents. More importantly, however, the Marcos administration seemingly failed to appreciate the perils of not reining in the greed of their legislative allies ahead of the
midterm elections. And here enters the significance of the split within the genuine opposition.
In theory, the disintegration of the “UniTeam” should have provided an unprecedented opening for a progressive ”third force.” But lacking a core leadership and characteristically fractious and ideologically incoherent, genuine opposition forces failed to congeal into an autonomous force. If anything, the administration chose to piggy-ride on the “Never Duterte” camp, which took up the cudgels to expose the notorious dynasty, while the Dutertes wasted no time to piggyride on the “Never Marcos” camp, which assiduously exposed alleged anomalies in the 2025 national budget.
The result is the fracturing of the national political discourse and, accordingly, a decisive halt to the antiDuterte momentum steadily building up over the past year.
And since the commander in chief happens to be a conflict-avoidant individual, there is effectively no center of gravity in Philippine politics. Thus, it’s impossible to predict the outcome of the inter-dynastic conflict, which is steadily tearing the country asunder.
In this sense, the Philippines more exhibits Niccolo Machiavelli’s ”cyclical” conception of history in medieval societies than the characteristics of a modern democratic republic. When institutions are weak, and the rule of law is purely aspirational, political development gives way to indeterminate cycles of intra-oligarchic struggles, institutional decay, and, worse, a political vacuum.
While undoubtedly entertaining, our Netflix-like politics is actually extremely dangerous, since it could ultimately produce a total crisis of legitimacy with dire consequences. On one hand,
more Filipinos could end up cynical and, accordingly, opt out of political mobilization altogether, thus dramatically diminishing chances of positive transformation for the foreseeable future. Worse, the emerging interregnum could strengthen the hands of more extreme forces, including proto-fascist advocates of a ”revolutionary government.” Unless the genuine opposition crystalizes into a coherent force, one that is capable of providing an alternative bastion of hope and leadership, the Philippines’ political fate will remain hostage to Mr. Marcos’ whims and the political death drive of the Dutertes. (Inquirer.net)
* * * The opinions, beliefs and viewpoints expressed by the author do not necessarily reflect the opinions, beliefs and viewpoints of Asian Journal, its management, editorial board and staff.
* * * rheydarian@inquirer.com.ph
PH sees no hard impact of US global aid freeze
PAGE 5
2023 figures
The directive was delivered in a cable sent to U.S. embassies around the world and will affect U.S-funded programs in support of health, education, development, job training, anticorruption, security assistance and other aid efforts.
In 2023, the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) provided $198.2 million in disbursed aid to the Philippines, according to ForeignAssistance.gov, a U.S. government website.
The funds supported various development initiatives, with the largest share going to general environmental protection ($32.59 million), followed by basic health ($25.52 million), governance and civil society ($24.98 million); and operating expenses ($22.1 million).
The other sectors that received assistance were maternal and child health, family planning ($19.27 million), emergency response ($12.59), basic education ($18.23 million), and energy ($7.44 million).
Turn to other partners USAID’s assistance to the Philippines was at least $144 million in 2024, according to an initial report.
While Japan remains the largest ODA provider, the report mentioned that USAID was also a significant contributor with grants totaling $623.75 million.
Manila Rep. Joel Chua, chair of the committee on good government and accountability, said that “in our own national interests, we should look more to the European Union, the Middle East, Japan, South Korea and Australia for foreign aid.”
“The America First policy the U.S. now has more likely means the U.S. will retreat from the rest of the world,” Chua said, while also cautioning against leaning toward Russian aid “unless Russia ends its war with Ukraine.”
Albay Rep. Joey Salceda,
an economist, warned that if the United States neglected its relationship with the Philippines, the country might have no other choice but to “balance that out with China.”
“We have sentimental ties with the U.S. We want them to succeed as they look after America first,” he said. “We have territorial issues with China, but between the U.S. and China, only the U.S. actually invaded our main islands.”
“So, we are not blind to the fact that they will look after their interest first. We just want them to be fair, and I think they will be. Because the farther the U.S. goes from us, the closer they force us to their adversaries,” Salceda said.
‘Low single digits’
Nevertheless, from an economic perspective, he said Trump’s order should not be an issue as the United States has not been a major source of aid for the Philippines for a while now, citing data from the National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) showing U.S. aid in the “low single digits” in terms of percent share.
“Their aid is their decision to make. Nothing needs to be done on our end,” Salceda said. “Our most important foreign relationships are, in this order, our relationship with Japan, our Asean community, and our strategic multilateralism.” Asean is the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations.
According to the latest available data from Neda, the official development assistance (ODA) received by the Philippines from foreign governments and institutions stood at $37.29 billion as of 2023, up by 15 percent from the previous year. That amount consisted of concessional loans worth $35.07 billion and $2.22 billion in grants.
Biggest share In 2023, Japan held the largest share of ODA in the country at 32 percent, followed by Asian
Development Bank and World Bank.
By sector, 54.59 percent of the ODA went to infrastructure. Governance and institution development received the second largest share (18.4 percent), followed by social reform and community development (15 percent) and agriculture, agrarian reform and natural resources (11.6 percent).
The remaining 0.79 percent went to industry, trade and tourism.
The U.S. provides more foreign aid globally than any other country, budgeting about $60 billion in 2023, or about 1 percent of the U.S. budget.
Rubio’s memo called for an internal review of all foreign assistance within 85 days.
In justifying the freeze, Rubio—who as a senator was a supporter of development assistance—wrote that it was impossible for the new administration to assess whether existing foreign aid commitments “are not duplicated, are effective and are consistent with President Trump’s foreign policy.”
Abandonment, ‘lunacy’
Antipoverty group
Oxfam said that Trump was abandoning a long-standing consensus in the United States for foreign assistance.
“Humanitarian and development assistance accounts for only around 1 percent of the federal budget; it saves lives, fights diseases, educates millions of children and reduces poverty,” Oxfam America president Abby Maxman said in a statement.
“Suspending and ultimately cutting many of these programs could have life or death consequences for countless children and families who are living through crisis,” she said.
“This is lunacy,” said Jeremy Konyndyk, a former USAID official who is now president of Refugees International. “This will kill people. I mean, if implemented as written in that cable … a lot of people will die.” n
What a US exit from the WHO means...
In the negotiations so far, the U.S. and the European Union have sided with lobbying from the pharmaceutical industry to uphold strict patent rights on drugs and vaccines. They have opposed efforts from middle-income countries in Asia, Africa, and Latin America to include licensing agreements that would allow more companies to produce drugs and vaccines when supplies are short in a crisis.
A study published in Nature Medicine estimated that more than a million lives would have been saved had COVID vaccines been available around the world in 2021.
“Once the U.S. is absent — for better and for worse — there will be less pressure on certain positions,” Moon said. “In the pandemic agreement negotiations, we may see weakening opposition towards more public-health-oriented approaches to intellectual property.”
“This is a moment of geopolitical shift because the U.S. is making itself less relevant,” said Ayoade Alakija, chair of the Africa Union’s Vaccine Delivery Alliance. Alakija said countries in Asia and Africa with emerging economies might now put more money into the WHO, change policies, and set agendas that were previously opposed by the U.S. and European countries that are grappling with the war in Ukraine.
“Power is shifting hands,” Alakija said. “Maybe that will give us a more equitable and fairer world in the long term.”
Echoes of Project 2025
In the near term, however, the WHO is unlikely to recoup its losses entirely, Moon said. Funds from the U.S. typically account for about 15% of its budget. Together with Trump’s executive order that pauses international aid for 90 days, a lack of money may keep many people from getting lifesaving treatments for HIV, malaria, and other diseases.
Another loss is the scientific collaboration that occurs via the WHO and at about 70 centers it hosts at U.S. institutions such as Columbia University and Johns Hopkins University.
Through these networks, scientists share findings despite political feuds between countries.
A third executive order commands the secretary of state to ensure the department’s programs are “in line with an America First foreign policy.” It follows on the order to pause international aid while reviewing it for “consistency with United States foreign policy.” That order says that U.S. aid has served “to destabilize world peace by promoting ideas in foreign countries that are directly inverse to harmonious and stable relations.”
These and executive orders on climate policies track with policy agendas expressed by Project 2025.
Although Trump and his new administration have distanced themselves from the Heritage Foundation playbook, CBS News reviewed the work histories of the 38 named primary
authors of Project 2025 and found that at least 28 of them worked in Trump’s first administration. One of Project 2025’s chief architects was Russell Vought, who served as director of the Office of Management and Budget during Trump’s first term and has been nominated for it again. Multiple contributors to Project 2025 are from the America First Legal Foundation, a group headed by Trump adviser Stephen Miller that’s filed complaints against “woke corporations.” Project 2025 recommends cutting international aid for programs and organizations focused on climate change and reproductive health care, and steering resources toward “strengthening the fundamentals of free markets,” lowering taxes, and deregulating businesses as a path to economic stability.
Several experts said the executive orders appear to be about ideological rather than strategic positioning. The White House did not respond to questions about its executive orders on global health. Regarding the executive order saying U.S. aid serves “to destabilize world peace,” a spokesperson at USAID wrote in an email: “We refer you to the White House.” (Amy Maxmen/KFF Health News) KFF Health News is a national newsroom that produces in-depth journalism about health issues and is one of the core operating programs at KFF—an independent source of health policy research, polling, and journalism.
On the move on day 3 of the new Trump...
organizations to strengthen the support network for vulnerable groups.
The embassy and our consulates general all over the U.S. are likewise continuing efforts to disseminate information about the rights of all Filipinos in the U.S., regardless of their immigration status, through our websites and social media platforms, providing information from the U.S. Department of Labor, migration offices of states, immigration centers and various sources.
As always, the Philippine embassy will do what we can in assisting all Filipinos regardless of status. But as I told Karen, the bottom line advice to our fellow Filipinos is to follow a legal path – if one wants to have peace of mind. (Philstar.com)
* The opinions, beliefs and viewpoints expressed by the author do not necessarily reflect the opinions, beliefs and viewpoints of Asian Journal, its management, editorial board and staff.
* Email: babeseyeview@gmail.com
VEGAS&STYLE JOURNAL
Bela Padilla bids goodbye to UK as she returns to acting career in PH
by HannaH Mallorca Inquirer.net
AFTER a four-year stay in London, Bela Padilla said she would be returning to the Philippines to focus on her full-time entertainment career.
Padilla took to her Instagram page on Sunday, January 26, to bid farewell to her life in London, while sharing glimpses of how her life went since moving to the European city in 2021.
“I am temporarily closing this chapter as I prepare to work full-time again. And yes, I should have taken more pictures. I should have kissed and hugged my loved ones as much as I needed,” she said.
The actress said that while living in London “made [her] question everything she knew, forced [her] to square [her] shoulders, walk faster, and be more vigilant,” it was nonetheless a place that allowed her to “smell flowers.”
“On days when I forgot what I sounded like because I wasn’t talking to anybody, I had the flowers to remind me that God wanted me happy by giving me the most beautiful flowers just around my neighborhood,” she said.
“London made me embrace the sad colors of autumn so hard that it would crush my soul every time I swept my garden before winter. Always weeping for the big tree I have, dying temporarily… as did I, with
My P.E.P. (People, Events,Places)
Rogelio constantino medina
THANKS to the nice and courteous service from Japan Airlines, I was well taken care of during my flight from Manila to Narita, Japan to San Francisco, California.
I met kind couple Viniel and Ren Diaz of Boston, Massachusetts as well as writer Hollis Cambodia and retired American military service officer Ambrosio Siaotong, both from California.
While on the plane I memorized by heart the 47 presidents of the United States from George Washington, John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, James Monroe, John Quincy Adams, Andrew Jackson, Martin Van Buren, William Henry Harrison, John Tyler, James Knox Polk, Zachary Taylor, Millard Fillmore, Franklin Pierce, James Buchanan Jr., Abraham Lincoln, Andrew Johnson, Ulysses S. Grant, Rutherford B. Hayes, James A. Garfield, Chester Alan Arthur, Stephen Grover Cleveland, Benjamin Harrison, Stephen Grover Cleveland, William McKinley, Theodore Roosevelt, William Howard Taft, Thomas Woodrow Wilson, Warren G. Harding, John Calvin Coolidge Jr., Herbert Hoover, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Harry S. Truman, Dwight D. Eisenhower, John Fitzgerald Kennedy, Lyndon B. Johnson, Richard M. Nixon, Gerald R. Ford, James Earl Carter, Ronald Reagan, George Herbert Walter Bush, William J. Clinton, George W. Bush, Barack Obama, Donald Trump, Joseph R. Biden Jr. to Donald Trump.
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I was grateful to Justin Wilson, director of U.S. Senate Periodical Press Gallery, who assists bona fide correspondents working for a magazine, newsletter, non-daily newspaper or online publication and serves Members of Congress and Congressional staff with any periodical press related questions or issues, as well as from the Executive Committee of Periodical Correspondents (that decides which publica-
every sad day, quiet room entered and moment of complete confusion,” Padilla continued.
Padilla said she’s thankful for her life in London as it made her instincts “sharper,” and it motivated her to stay healthier. “Because of London, my instincts are now sharper. I stayed as healthy as I could while navigating my autoimmune disorder.”
“I very quickly learned to walk, ride my bike, and eventually drive cars on the left side. The education I got from in and out of the classrooms, [is] imbedded in me now,” she continued.
“London also gave me the best friends that one could develop in adulthood, abroad.”
In her post, Padilla admitted that she was sad upon leaving London, although she is hopeful that she will “call it home again.”
“London is polite but shouts when you’re wrong. Beautiful but rough around the edges. Kind but has a darkness that could scare the tough… my friend, London,” she said.
Before returning to the Philippines, Padilla was in the country for the launch of her makeup line and a hosting gig on “It’s Showtime,” among other activities.
She is set to star in the upcoming drama “What Lies Beneath” and the film “100 Awit Para Kay Stella.”
Award-winning Istorya presents ‘Sulu: A taste of Mindanao’ - A culinary journey through Muslim Filipino heritage
LAS VEGAS – In a city where Filipinos are the largest and fastest growing Asian ethnic group with over 200,000 residents and home to a growing Muslim community of over 10,000, Istorya, named "Best PopUp Restaurant" by Las Vegas Weekly, announces their third pop-up dinner series "Sulu: A Taste of Mindanao."
This immersive dining experience celebrates the culinary heritage of Mindanao's Muslim Filipino communities, representing an important yet often overlooked intersection of Filipino and Islamic cultures.
These special events, taking place on February 4 and 25, 2025, offer guests an intimate exploration of Muslim Filipino flavors and traditions through a thoughtfully curated menu featuring 12 dishes. Additionally, each dish will be accompanied by our awardwinning documentary series, providing a glimpse into the lives, traditions, and culinary practices of Muslim Filipino communities.
A journey through the Sulu archipelago
The menu and dining experience is inspired by our team’s extensive research and travels to this part of the Philippines, including Isabela Basilan, TawiTawi, Lanao Del Norte, and Zamboanga–regions where Muslim Filipinos comprise
the majority population.
Istorya’s Head Chef
Catherine Carlucci, former Executive Sous Chef at Momofuku Las Vegas, has crafted a 12-dish menu inspired by the depth and diversity of Muslim Filipino cuisine. From the charred coconut notes of the south to its turmeric-tainted dishes, Mindanao's cuisine reflects deep influences from our Southeast Asian counterparts incorporating Indonesian, Malay, Thai, and Middle Eastern flavors.
Event details:
• Dates: February 4 & 25, 2025
• Location: Palate, 1301 S Main St, Suite 110, Las Vegas
• Two Seatings: 5 PM and 8 PM
• Price: $85 per person (plus taxes and gratuities)
"This dinner series represents more than just a meal," says Walbert Castillo, Founder of Istorya LV. "It's an opportunity to highlight the diversity within Filipino culture and create understanding through food. The Muslim Filipino community has preserved unique culinary traditions that tell important stories about our shared heritage."
US Vice President JD Vance’s memoir ‘Hillbilly Elegy’
tions qualify for press credentials) and the Congressional Periodical Press Galleries (in charge of administering credentials).
I was supposed to be assigned in the West Front seat of The Capitol for U.S. President Donald Trump’s inauguration, but due to extreme weather conditions the venue was changed. The oath-takings of President Trump and U.S. Vice President JD Vance were held inside the Capital Rotunda.
Speaking of VP Vance, I was mesmerized by how caring he is toward his children. I could sense he might be the next president after Trump in the near future.
VP Vance’s memoir “Hillbilly Elegy” (a 2016 memoir about the Appalachian values of his family from Kentucky and the socioeconomic problems of his hometown of Middletown, Ohio where his mother’s parents moved when they were young) was adapted into the 2020 film directed by Ron Howard and starring Glenn Close and Amy Adams. It is a story of rural sociology, poverty and family drama.
James David Vance (born James Donald Bowman, August 2, 1984) is an American author, attorney and Marine Corps veteran. A member of the Republican Party, he represented Ohio in the U.S. Senate.
* * * Former U.S. Pres. Joe Biden spoke recently with His Holiness Pope Francis and named him as a recipient of the Presidential Medal of Freedom with Distinction. For decades, Pope Francis served the voiceless and vulnerable across Argentina. As a loving pastor, he joyfully answers children’s questions about God. And as a welcoming leader, he reaches out to “different faiths and commands us all to fight for peace and protect the planet.”
This is the only time that former President Biden has awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom with Distinction.
* * * On January 29, 2025, it will
be Chinese New Year! I randomly asked three couples (the last batch) to answer two questions: (1) What are your plans/projects this year? (2) Any insights/learnings on the past year?
Here are their honest replies:
Dr. Mark and Leane Bunag, a medical doctor and a nurse, respectively: (1) “Build our savings, have more travel, invest in properties, and have more quality time with the family.”; (2) “We prioritized our time and our health.”
Patrick and Maricar Saburit of Kylledmed Philippines: (1) “In 2025, our focus is on growth and meaningful connections. We’re looking forward to pursuing projects that align with our passions and exploring ways to contribute to the community. This year, we’re also excited to create more memorable experiences with our children as we travel and work on new ventures together. Balance and progress are our key priorities for the year ahead.”; (2) “2024 was a year of lessons. It taught us the importance of patience and adaptability when navigating life’s challenges. We’ve also come to value the power of being present — celebrating small victories, cherishing time with loved ones, and embracing every moment as a chance to grow and connect. These insights are shaping our perspective as we step into 2025.”
Chris and Adelle Lim, Philstagers Foundation thespians: (1) “For 2025, we will still continue to perform in PSF as actors and marketing officers. We’ll save, invest and travel. We are planning to buy a retirement property outside Manila and we will be focusing in improving our fitness and health, to be young looking this year.”; (2) “The opportunities and experiences given were eye-opening. It taught us how contentment can bring a whole new scale of happiness. It taught us how invaluable people are – our conversations, their insight, their experiences, and so much more. Looking forward to the new things I am about to encounter and the new
version of ourselves who we ought to become – a healthier, braver, tougher and wiser version of ourselves!” * * * The movie Mark Wahlberg’s “Flight Risk” is now
Bela Padilla
Photo from Instagram/@bela
Dr. Mark and Leane Bunag with their kids
Mark Wahlberg’s “Flight Risk” is now showing worldwide. The text of the Presidential Medal of Freedom awarded recently to Pope Francis.
AJ columnist Rogelio Medina on the way to Narita, Japan onboard Japan Airlines.
Patrick and Maricar Saburit with their kids Chris and Adelle Lim
Former U.S. President Joe Biden (2nd from left) recently awarded Pope Francis with the Presidential Medal of Freedom with Distinction. Photos courtesy of Rogelio C. Medina
U.S. 50th and current Vice President JD Vance, is also author of the memoir “Hillbilly Elegy,” which was adapted to a film with the same name directed by Ron Howard.
From left: Rogelio Medina, and couple Ren and Viniel of Boston, Massachusetts
PEOPLE talk about Artificial Intelligence (AI) as a futuristic technological phenomenon. Actually, AI is here amidst us. It has been with us since it was first conceptualized by Alan Turing, the Father of Computer Science, in the 1950s. The first decade thereafter “saw the groundbreaking ideas and fundamental work that set the stage for future AI development.”
Actually, the early concepts and precursors of AI, the idea of artificial beings with humanlike intelligence, has been a part of mythology for centuries, like the Greek tale of Talos, a giant automation. It was not until the 19th century “that mathematician Charles Babbage designed the Analytical Engine, an early mechanical generalpurpose computer.” Over the next 150 years since then, the concept of computing has expanded to establish the foundation for our present digital world.
The birthplace of AI as an academic discipline was in the 8-week Dartmouth Conference (Workshop in Dartmouth College in Hanover, New Hampshire), organized by mathematician-computer scientist John McCarthy and about 20 of his computer scientists, mathematicians, cognitive psychologists, colleagues. The goals “was to create intelligent machines that could use language, form abstractions, and solve problems that were previously only solved by humans.”
Obviously, the objective was accomplished, evidenced by today’s countless initial AI applications in various fields of technological, science, and medical fields of endeavors.
AI will revolutionize all aspects of human life on earth, including the health industry and medical care. It will transform them to a more effective, efficient, preemptive, proactive, disease prevention and healthy lifestyle strategies, faster and better-quality drug (lesser side effects, complications, etc.) development, more rapid and more accurate, lesser invasive (may be bloodless) diagnostic procedures, more robotic, surgical options, leading to lesser operating time, minimal complications, and faster recovery.
People will be better guarded, protected, and served by humanoid devices out on the street or at home, as companions, bodyguard in a self-driving electric
car, valet, bar-tender, chef, doing dish and house cleaning, and acting as food and beverage servers, even as gardeners. No one will be left lonely, alone at home, without a partner or a spouse. These new AI companions will be totally loyal hardworking, very efficient, “new member of our family,” a great compliment to our pets (which might be Ai pets also), doing all chores 24/7, no rest, no complaints, fully dedicated.
Indeed, AI will transform our world into a vastly different one in the near future. Adding more wonders to our already wonderful world!
Apnea scam devices
Obstructive Sleep Apnea (OSA) is an anatomical aberration that causes a person’s back part of the roof of the mouth to be flabby and flail and the tongue to fall back to block the airway passage resulting in oxygendeficit, like in suffocation. OSA is genetic, hereditary, where the family history is a strong risk factor. With or without snoring, untreated or improperly treated OSA is a dangerous condition which leads to high risk for coronary heart attack, stroke, and diabetes.
Since the main effect of airway obstruction and breath-holding many times (some more than 100 times) a night, the person wakes up, sleep-deprived, unrefreshed, tired, with poor concentration, leading to poor judgement, driving, and job performance. All this due to impaired sleep with chronic lack of oxygen throughout the sleep cycle.
There are many gadgets advertised as treatment for sleep apnea are not treating the anatomical cause and are useless, waste of money, and obviously very dangerous, providing the person a false sense of security. Gadgets like the nose clips, denture guards, herbs, drugs, potion and lotion, etc. are all useless.
Inspire, the surgically implantable device, using electrodes to control the tongue from falling back, requires an operation, and not guaranteed to work for every OSA patient. It is not only limited in effect, but also more invasive and expensive. Inspire is not a good alternative to CPAP. Almost all users feel more secure using CPAP in their sleep, and wake up refreshed, with more vigor and vitality. And they won’t even sleep without CPAP, even when traveling, even when cruising.
The gold standard of care for Obstructive Sleep Apnea worldwide is CPAP (Continuous Positive Airway Pressure) therapy. This was invented by an
Australian physician, Dr. Colin Sullivan, in 1980, and has been effectively helping OSA patients. There are one billion persons (some as young as 30) with sleep apnea around the world, 30 million of them in the U.S. and about 4 million in the Philippines. Many more are undiagnosed. A good and restful sleep is vital to our general health and longevity. The public must be well-informed about these scams and fraud in medical management of diseases, even in herbals and food supplements. Many of them are unnecessary and could even be dangerous to health. With the countless questionable products/ drugs/potion/creams/ devices out there, the only recipients that become healthier are the deep pockets of the unconscionable entrepreneurs. The drug and food supplement business are a 400-billion+-a year industry.
Hopefully, Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., if confirmed as Secretary of Health and Human Services on January 29, will address this issue seriously, among dozens of other ills and deficiencies in our nation’s healthcare system, in order to protect the ignorant, disinformed, or unsuspecting public, here in the U.S., in the Philippines, and around the world (by ripple-effect), who have been victims of this grand international fraud for decades. It’s about time that the public was protected from the scam and got the justice they deserve.
* * * The opinions, beliefs and viewpoints expressed by the author do not necessarily reflect the opinions, beliefs and viewpoints of the Asian Journal, its management, editorial board and staff.
* * * The main objective of this column is to educate and inspire people to live a healthier lifestyle, to prevent illnesses and disabilities and achieve a happier and more productive life. Any diagnosis, recommendation, or treatment in our article are general medical information and not intended to be applicable to or appropriate for anyone. This column is not a substitute for your physician, who knows your condition well and who is your best ally when it comes to your health.
* * * Philip S. Chua, MD, FACS, FPCS, a Cardiac Surgeon Emeritus based in Northwest Indiana and Las Vegas, Nevada, is an international medical lecturer/author, a health advocate, medical missionary, newspaper columnist, and chairman of the Filipino United Network-USA, a 501(c)3 humanitarian foundation in the United States. He is a recipient of the Indiana Sagamore of the Wabash Award, whose past awardees include President Harry S. Truman, President George HW Bush, Astronaut Gus Grissom, Mohammad Ali, distinguished educators, and renowned scientists (source: Wikipedia). Websites: www.FeuNrmfMedicalAlumni.org, www. Today.SPSAtoday.com, and www.FEU-dnrMedalumni.org; Email: scalpelpen@ gmail.com.
Award-winning Istorya presents ‘Sulu...
context for each dish
• Interactive elements that bring traditions to life
Each dish will be accompanied by segments from Istorya's awardwinning documentary series, providing intimate glimpses into the lives, traditions, and culinary practices of Muslim Filipino communities.
In thoughtful consideration of Islamic dietary traditions, the menu is entirely porkfree and features Halalcertified meats sourced from local partner and grocery store Afandi Market. This commitment ensures that each dish not only tells a story but honors the cultural practices it represents.
The timing of these events is significant as Las Vegas continues to emerge as a hub for Filipino cultural preservation, with its Filipino American community advocating for the creation of “Filipino Town” to be designated along Maryland Parkway. The Las Vegas Filipino community has a median
A glimpse of the resuscitated Baguio Mansion House
by rogelio constantino Medina AJ Press
THE weather is awesome and it takes to have a good ambience of the City of Pines in Benguet that has attracted thousands of tourists, foreign and local, each year because of its beautiful, serene, historic spots.
One of the city's tourist attractions is said to be the white-painted Baguio Mansion House, a two-storey arcaded building perched on a windy hill. It is surrounded by some abundant breezy trees, manicured lawns and gardens situated along Romulo Drive, just across the Wright Park.
The mansion house is considered as the official summer palace of the presidents of the Philippines, from Manuel L. Quezon up to the present.
Every day, almost 500 tourists are taking pictures outside the mansion house. On weekends, it reaches up to 2,000 people.
All this, thanks to First Lady Louise Araneta-Marcos for opening its big gate to the public to see what goes on behind the closed doors of the palace.
Similar to the Teus Museum in Manila, the Presidential Museum in the Baguio Mansion House boasts of a vast collection of our history and culture, the priceless memorabilia, including presidential portraits, attire, footwear, flags, photographs, old mailbox, porcelain gifts, busts sculpted in the likeness of the former leaders, portraits of first ladies along the hall, and presidential room and meeting room.
Built 117 years ago as the summer residence of American governorsgeneral (until 1935), the Baguio Mansion House was constructed at the instance of William Cameron Forbes following the design of William E. Parsons as part of the Burnham Plan for Baguio in 1908, inspired by the city's beautiful movement. In 1910,
it became the site of the special session of the Second Philippine Legislature.
Though the mansion house was destroyed in 1945 during the battle for the liberation of the Philippines, it was reconstructed and improved after two years. It was the seat of the second session of the United Nations’ Economic Commission of Asia and the Far East (ECAFE) in 1947. The following year, the second session of Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) was held in Baguio Mansion. In 1950, it was the venue of the first meeting of the South East Asia Union (SEAU), popularly known as the Baguio Conference of 1950, conceived and convened by Pres. Elpidio Quirino.
For years, the mansion house was not open to the public and it was exclusive
only for the use of the First Family since it is the summer residence of a Philippine president. At that time, you could just take some photoops outside to view the arcaded building from its elegant gate.
Through the initiative of First Lady Louise AranetaMarcos, it was opened to the public for the first time as a museum starting September 2024. It is the selfless commitment of the first lady to revive heritage houses through the Malacanang Heritage Tours office.
At night, the Baguio Mansion House is so magical, enchanting and alluring to the eyes as if you were in James Hilton's Lost Horizon, so peaceful and tranquilly mesmerizing, as you witness the spectacular dancing waters from a long pool park just across the road.
Celebrate a decade of Impact: ACDC’s InspirAsian
LAS VEGAS – The Asian Community Development Council (ACDC) is thrilled to celebrate its inaugural “InspirAsian Gala 2025” marking 10 years of transformative work in empowering and uplifting the Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander (AANHPI) communities in Nevada. This special evening will honor ACDC’s legacy of resilience, recognize trailblazing leaders, and support the Healthy Asians & Pacific Islanders (HAPI) Medical Center, which provides vital healthcare to underserved communities in Las Vegas.
The gala will feature a VIP reception with small bites from local AANHPI Las Vegas businesses, cultural performances, dinner, and a silent auction. ACDC will also honor trailblazers who have made significant contributions to the Las Vegas Valley and beyond that will be revealed in the upcoming weeks.
WHEN: Saturday, February 8, 2025
VIP Reception begins at 5:30PM Program begins at 7:00PM
WHERE: Keep Memory Alive Event Center, 888 W
Bonneville Ave, Las Vegas, NV 89106 Press members are invited to attend the InspirAsian Gala, RSVP to Jen Bambao
history of
Baguio Mansion House at night.
The Philippine president’s office inside the Baguio Mansion House.
A plaque describes the history of the Baguio Mansion House in one of its manicured lawns and driveways leading to the house. AJPress photos by Rogelio C. Medina
Daral, Putli Mandi, Baulo, Kahawa Sug
Lamb Kulma, Piaparan a Udong, Piyutu Knickerboxer with P’lil
