LA / ORANGE C / INLAND E
Robin reacts to BB’s decision to change name, gender See ENTERTAINMENT, page 15
VOL. XXIII, NO. 33
LOS ANGELES / ORANGE COUNTY / INLAND EMPIRE
September 17 - 23, 2016
The leading source of news and information for Filipino-Americans
Palace on US troops’ departure: ‘Not yet’
MANILA, Sept 13 (Mabuhay) – President Rodrigo Duterte telling American troops to leave Mindanao is not yet a policy statement, presidential spokesperson Ernesto Abella said Tuesday. “It is not policy yet. It is not policy. In other words, nobody acted on it yet,” he said in a press briefing in Malacañang. “There is no specific directive as to how this pronouncement will be effected,” Abella added. Duterte’s words, however, may be a basis for future actions. “Definitely, the President has already painted a picture, let’s see how it unfolds,” he said. Duterte on Monday said that the US special forces based in Mindanao “have to go.” “Kaya iyong mga special forces, they have to go. They have to go. In Mindanao,
maraming mga puti roon, they have to go. I-review ko iyang foreign policy. Hindi ko lang masalita noon out of respect or I do not want a rift with America. But they have to go,” Duterte said in a speech delivered before his new appointees at the Heroes Hall in Malacañang. The US State Department, meanwhile, said that the Philippines has not made an official demand on the American troops’ pullout from Mindanao. (MNS)
President Rodrigo Duterte is greeted by Mindanao Development Authority Chairperson Abul Khayr Alonto at the 6th Cabinet Meeting in Malacañan’s State Dining Room on September 14.(MNS photo)
Dismantle all US-RP defense treaties – Bayan-USA By Abner Galino
THE chair of Bayan-USA, a cause-oriented organization, has called the administration of President Rodrigo Duterte to abrogate all of the country’s military agreements with the United States of America (USA). Bernadette Ellorin made the call on the eve of the 25th anniversary of the Philippine Senate’s rejection of a treaty that would have prolonged the stay of US military bases in the Philippines on September 16, 1991. The call also came amid a very strong anti-American rhetoric coming from President Duterte himself – the most recent of which was his call for the US Special Forces to leave the island of Mindanao. Ellorin explained that the continuing American presence in the Philippines is
“preventing the country from gaining real political, social and cultural growth” as a sovereign nation. The Bayan-USA chairperson also pointed out that the US military presence in the country is supposedly not contributing to our country’s security agenda and are instead serving as a magnet for attacks from the enemies of the US. Ellorin said the organization supports the Duterte administration’s efforts in the peace talks with the Communist Party of the Philippines-National Democratic Front (CPP-NDF) and in asserting its sovereignty. However, it does not agree with the Duterte administration’s determination to bury former dictator Ferdinand Marcos at the Libingan ng mga See DISMANTLE, page 8
Filipino-Americans hail Gov. Brown’s Domestic Workers Bill of Rights By Abner Galino
FILIPINO-AMERICANS hailed California Gov. Jerry Brown’s signing of Senate bill (SB) 1015 which permanently enshrined the so-called “Domestic Workers Bill of Rights” into the state’s Labor Code. Brown’s action will affect an estimated 300,000 domestic workers in California See GOV. BROWN, page 8
Members of PWC during a recent outreach at Historic Filipino Town
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Why they prefer to walk: Many commuters (shown at far right) prefer to walk on their way to work, schools or other appointments rather than riding in passenger jeepneys that moved bumper-to-bumper along the Marcos Highway near corner Mayor Gil Fernando Ave. in Marikina City on Tuesday (Sept. 13, 2016). (PNA photo by Joey O. Razon)
Poe: Traffic a ‘daily dose of indignity and torment’
MANILA, Sept 14 (Mabuhay) -- As the country’s traffic problem remains unsolved, commuters are left with no choice but to endure a “daily dosage of indignity and torment, loss of time for family and impact on health” not to mention its “massive economic cost.” This was how Senator Grace Poe lamented this sorry state of commuters when she spoke before the United
Kingdom (UK) Transport Solutions seminar held at the Discovery Suites in Mandaluyong City on Wednesday. Poe then urged the government to ensure that its proposed solutions to the traffic problem would benefit the marginalized sector of society, who she said are mostly users of public transportation. “Our national transporSee TRAFFIC, page 8
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