SAN FRANCISCO – Spring break, blooming flowers and warming temperatures are all hallmarks of spring time in Northern and Central California. So is April’s National Safe Digging Month – a public safety initiative supported by Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG&E) and more than 1,000 other utilities -- that raises awareness about the importance of having underground utility lines marked in advance of any digging project. It’s a nation-wide effort to help keep people safe ...

By Macon Araneta | FilAm Star Correspondent The Supreme Court, acting as the Presidential Electoral Tribunal (PET), rejected the motion of Vice-president Leni Robredo to follow the “shading threshold” set by the Commission on Elections to validate the revision of votes in the 2016 vice-presidential race. In a resolution signed by Clerk of Court Edgar Aricheta, the PET ruled inaccurate Robredo’s claim that the Comelec applies a 25-percent threshold in determining a valid...

By William Casis | FilAm Star Correspondent The National Privacy Commission (NPC) launched its probe into Facebook with the recent admission of its founder Mark Zuckerberg of the company’s faults in the Cambridge Analytica data scandal that affected Filipino users of the social media giant. Mark Zuckerberg, the 33-year-old CEO of the on-line network, faced U.S. lawmakers over allegations of privacy violation involving 87 million of its users worldwide. During the hea...

By Lara Climaco | FilAm Star Correspondent Amid delays in finalizing guidelines for the selection of the country’s new major telecommunications player, Malacañang has created an oversight committee to ensure the entry of the third telco. Joining the Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) in the oversight panel are the Department of Finance as vice-chair and the Office of the Executive Secretary and the National Security Adviser as members. DICT c...

By Daniel Llanto | FilAm Star Correspondent The Office of the Ombudsman said it learned just in time that former Sen. Jinggoy Estrada got the Sandiganbayan’s permission to travel to the U.S. because he forged a letter from the U.S. Pinoys for Good Government (USPGG) inviting him as guest speaker for its May 20 annual general membership meeting. USPGG Chairperson and Filipino-American philanthropist Loida Nicolas Lewis and USPGG President Rodel Rodis flatly denied issuin...

By William Casis | FilAm Star Correspondent President Rodrigo Duterte formally apologized for the deaths of eight Hong Kong tourists in a 2010 Manila hostage crisis that soured ties with the Chinese territory in his recent visit to Hong Kong. Speaking before the Filipino community in Hong Kong, Duterte stressed that an apology to “the Chinese government and the people of China” was “only right” and necessary. “From the bottom of my heart as the president of the Repub...

By Daniel Llanto | FilAm Star Correspondent A Socialist Party official from the European Union (EU) who had criticized President Duterte’s bloody war on drugs was deported upon arrival while an Australian nun who had joined cause-oriented rallies in Manila was taken into custody to suggest the commencement of a crack-down on foreign human rights activists. Giacomo Filibeck, deputy secretary-general of the Party of European Socialists (PES), was denied entry at the Macta...