Rest in Peace, Judge Peter

ended up spending the rest of his life with. Their love story is something that one can only read through a best seller book. Truly, it is a fascinating story. They were former acquaintances before they got married to their respective spouses, raised their children towards very successful careers before they became single again.

Retired judge Pedro “Peter”

De Castro Rivera, Jr., a former resident of Chula Vista, California left us early this month for a better destination. He is bound to the Great Beyond to assume judgeship in the Court of Last Instance where St. Peter will verify his credentials. The Peter-to-Peter tete-a-tete will undoubtedly explore the finding of fact as to why he never got rich while working for the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR).

Judge Peter, as his friends adoringly called him, was an incredibly humble person. Despite his stature, achievements and impressive credentials, Peter was down to earth and an easy conversationalist. He completed his secondary education at San Beda College and got his law degree from the Ateneo de Manila University. He worked for the BIR, was a former Executive Assistant of then Secretary of Labor, Agapito Braganza; a Columbo Plan Study Travel grantee, and was eventually assigned Municipal Judge at Alaminos, Pangasinan, his birthplace, and where he retired from the bench.

I met him through an acquaintance and fellow Filipino Press columnist, Aurora Soriano Cudal whom Peter

Fate would have it that their lives would intersect once more during a social event among fellow Pangasinenses in San Diego, rekindled their past, got their cardios going faster again, and their relationship eventually blossomed to many splendored things. It was during this romantic era that I got acquainted with Judge Peter. They were like young people in love again that they came to terms with the idea of marriage and verbalized their “I do’s.”

When Peter would retell their love story, he put it in tennis lingo

Free Speech vs. National Security in Proposed TikTok Ban

By Peter White/eMS

With a billion users worldwide and 150 million in the U.S., Chinese owned social media giant TikTok is facing a possible ban here amid growing concerns around data privacy and rising geopolitical tensions with Beijing.

Opponents of the ban say it ignores wider data concerns around social media and potentially raises serious first amendment issues.

“I have seen the activities of the Communist Party in China. They are ferocious,” says Mark Warner (D-VA), who recently introduced the RESTRICT Act, which would put limits on foreign owned digital communications channels like TikTok, whose parent-company ByteDance is based in Beijing.

Warner, who is chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee, says that Chinese engineers have access to the data of millions of American users and worries the CCP could use that data as part of misinformation and propaganda campaigns, or even to blackmail Americans.

“They know your likes… it is a very real, tangible threat. We shouldn’t have to wait till it plays out to take it off,” Warner told reporters at an Ethnic Media Services news briefing last week. Warner is a defense hawk who co-founded Nextel and has invested in hundreds of start-up technology companies. “I strongly believe in the positive power of technology. I also acknowledge that there’s a lot of creative things on TikTok… and there is a whole new group of people who make their income off of that, and I think that is a good thing,” he said.

But Warner contends the difference between TikTok and Facebook or YouTube – which have also come under fire around issues of data privacy – is the former’s Chinese ownership. Under a 2017 law, Chinese tech companies have “to turn over everything” to the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).

Warner says China is stealing $500 billion dollars a year of intellectual property directly or indirectly. He adds Chinese entrepreneurs reverse engineer American social media platforms, improve them and gain a competitive advantage. There is no evidence that TikTok did that, however.

– love, set, match. He was a tennis aficionado and knew that every game starts with “love” and “loveall” is a score when both scored.

Fair enough. I asked him once what happens when he gets into an argument with Aurora, and answered tongue in cheek “it’s a tie-break and

Hoping to forestall a TikTok ban, ByteDance CEO Shou Chew – who is Singaporean – recently testified before members of Congress. He told the House Energy and Commerce Committee that TikTok doesn’t share user data with the Chinese government. He outlined a plan to store American user data in the U.S. He said American user data is currently stored on Oracle servers to which CCP has no access.

Chew also said TikTok doesn’t carry political ads like other social media platforms and he said the company doesn’t sell data to brokers. Chew said TikTok doesn’t collect any more user data than U.S. social media companies do.

Misinformation and propaganda

With one third of the U.S. population hooked on TikTok, the Biden administration worries that it could be used to spread misinformation to American users and influence U.S. elections like to win, one must have the advantage first,” Peter’s humor.

His verve even at his age reflected an active, athletic lifestyle in his younger and midlife years. Tennis was a topic we found enjoyable and loved to bounce around. Vitas

Gerulaitis was a popular tennis name we agreed sounded like a disease.

A very affable guy, Peter truly loved life and lived it to the fullest. He loved and longed for the company of fellow seniors, would dance and sing like there is no more tomorrow. He always wore a smile and was never legalese in conversions. Peter struck me as a principled man with a wellgrounded perspective that I truly enjoyed in our past conversations.

Politics animated him and Philippine elections, especially, always scores high in his leaderboard. American politics was an enigma to him and encouraged and welcomed other perspectives. He got satisfaction from deeper points of view. Truly an elder statesman and an intellectual. The world is much better because of him for people whose lives he touched with his kindness and upright living. Despite his small physical stature by American standards, Peter was bigger than life. I’ll hazard an educated guess, that when he was speaking and writing from the bench, his opinions were erudite and that he ruled with cold neutrality. From the bench and his simple living, Peter left a legacy that his children will admire, be very proud of and treasure.

My only regret is that I did not meet him sooner. We could have exchanged volleys and bantered some more. I will miss him as a friend, admire for his astute view in life, and emulate his ethics and moral philosophy. At 93, his life was indeed well-lived and fruitful. He played like a champion and let his gavel do the talking.

Russian hackers did in the 2016 presidential election. CNN reported that federal officials are demanding TikTok’s Chinese owners sell their stake in the company or face a U.S. ban of the app. During last month’s hearing several congressmen made clear they wanted to see the app banned.

BuzzFeed has reported that ByteDance employees based in China repeatedly accessed data of one U.S. reporter to figure out where she was getting her information. Subsequently, the company fired four employees. But there has been