By Harvey I. Barkin SAN JOSE – Catholic Charities of Santa Clara County (CCSCC) announced last March 2 receipt of a $325,000 grant from Google, Inc. to help improve Catholic Charities’ Communities Organizing Resources to Advance Learning’s (CORAL’s) Science, Technology, Engineering, Math (STEM) program at Anne Darling Elementary School. Catholic Charities initiated CORAL in 2003 as a K-8 expanded program that focuses on improving academic performance with literacy and h...

By Daniel Llanto FilAm Star Correspondent Women’s groups observed International Women’s Day last, March 8 by lambasting President Duterte for sexist remarks and his penchant for downgrading women in general. The tone was set by Sen. Risa Hontiveros who cried that Filipino women are facing a “new and unparalleled” spate of sexism under the Duterte administration. “We are witnessing an outbreak of sexism and misogyny under this two-year-old administration. In all three b...

By Macon Araneta | FilAm Star Correspondent Sen. Leila de Lima raised alarm over the alleged auction of Filipino household service workers (HSWs) to families that bid the most money for maids in Saudi Arabia. De Lima, a known anti-human trafficking advocate, said the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) and the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) should investigate this illegal “maid auction” of overseas Filipino workers in the Kingdom. She urged DFA and DOLE to...

By Corina Oliquino | FilAm Star Correspondent The Philippines has been named the best country to invest in by U..S News and has ranked the country 49th on its over-all Best Countries report. In its 2018 Best Countries report, U.S. News said rankings are based on “how global perceptions define countries in terms of a number of qualitative characteristics, impressions that have the potential to drive trade, travel and investment and directly affect national economies.” ...

By Lara Climaco | FilAm Star Correspondent President Rodrigo Duterte is going with the Department of Interior and Local Government’s (DILG) plan to declare a state of calamity in Boracay in order to hasten the rehabilitation of the top tourist destination and at the same time provide financial aid to displaced workers. The President revealed his next move at the oath-taking ceremony for officials of the Philippine Anti-Corruption Commission held last March 6 in Malacaña...

By Daniel Llanto | FilAm Star Correspondent Indications abound that the impeachment complaint against Chief Justice Maria Lourdes Sereno will soon be approved in the House of Representatives and forwarded to the Senate for the formal impeachment trial. But the Office of the Solicitor General sought to pre-empt the process with a so-called quo warranto petition asking the Supreme Court itself to oust their chief. Solicitor Gen. Jose Calida asked the Supreme Court to n...

By Macon Araneta | FilAm Star Correspondent Despite the scare over the government’s immunization program following the anti-dengue vaccine Dengvaxia controversy, dengue cases in the Philippines dropped to 41.38 percent during the first six weeks of this year. The Department of Health (DoH) Dengue Disease Surveillance Report showed a total of 10,980 new dengue cases, which included 51 deaths. It indicated that the number of dengue cases was 41.38 percent lower than th...

By Corina Oliquino | FilAm Star Correspondent DAVAO CITY – President Duterte ordered the country’s security forces, the police not to ‘respond’ to United Nations (UN) rapporteurs who would investigate human rights abuses under his administration’s drug war at the National SWAT Challenge last March 1. “Pagdating ng human rights o sino mang rapporteur diyan, ang order ko sa inyo, do not answer. Do not bother,” Duterte told Rappler. “Why would we be answering? Bakit, si...

DALY CITY, CA, February 27, 2018 – After the much applauded performances of Bantay Bata Voices and Philippine Concert King Martin Nievera, ABS-CBN The Filipino Channel (TFC) is bringing in the number one college booked entertainment group of the year in the U.S. in 2016, Filipino American a capella singing sensation, The Filharmonic, to sing the U.S. national anthem at the Warriors Filipino Heritage Night presented by Tanduay Rum on March 25, Sunday, at the Oracle Arena in Oa...

AARP made its debut in the Southwest Airlines® Chinese New Year Parade in San Francisco this past Saturday, February 24. As the largest celebration of Asian culture outside of Asia, the parade attracted 1.3 spectators.​ On the float was Jay Stone Shih, host of “Real Possibilities with AARP,” a lifestyle TV talk show aimed at raising awareness and understanding of AARP’s wealth of useful resources for Chinese Americans age 50-plus.