By Macon Araneta The Senate has begun deliberations into the proposed measure that expands the use of a fund meant to help overseas Filipinos facing legal distress in their places of work abroad. Sen. Joel Villanueva sponsored Senate Bill No. 1233, which seeks to expand the use of the Legal Assistance Fund (LAF) that the government taps to cover various costs of overseas Filipinos embroiled in legal actions abroad. He explained the necessity of instituting amendments on th...

By Corina Oliquino MANILA - The Freedom for media, Freedom for All Network has documented at least 154 incidents of attacks and threats against news media from June 30, 2016 to December 05, 2019. The report, released on December 10, accounted for the deaths of 15 journalists, 28 incidents of intimidation, 20 on-line harassment cases, 12 threats via text messages, 12 libel cases, 10 website attacks, eight slay attempts and eight cases of journalists barred from coverage ...

By Daniel Llanto US President Donald Trump just signed the Department of State, Foreign Operations, and Related Programs Appropriations Bill 2020 which contained an amendment that allows the US Secretary of State to bar from American soil Philippine officials and other individuals allegedly involved in De Lima’s “wrongful imprisonment.” Apart from President Duterte, among the officials also blacklisted are Presidential spokesman Salvador Panelo, Solicitor Gen. Jose Cali...

By Joseph Peter R. Gonzales After “Super Parental Guardians” opposite Vice Ganda which was shown in 2016, Coco Martin has a new project under Star Cinema. It’s a fresh development since for the past few years, the popular actor has been appearing inpotboilers produced by his own movie out t,CCM Productions, just like the reboot of “Panday”which he elded in the annual Metro Manila FilmFestival. In his new Star Cinema assignment, Coco getspaired for the rst time ...

Story and Photos by R. Mascardo OAKLAND, Calif.-- For the Raiders and their fans, it took a dark twist in most likely the final game at the Oakland Coliseum, the Raiders lost 20-16 to the Jaguars on a touchdown in the final minute. The Raiders could not close out the game, in the second half on the possession before Conley's touchdown catch. Derek Carr was ruled out of bounds on a scramble after it appeared he'd slid in bound to keep the clock running.Receiver Tyrell Wi...

By Daniel Llanto Critics of President Duterte alluded to the age-old story of how Nero fiddled while Rome burned when the chief of the Presidential Security Group (PSG) reported that Duterte went back to his interrupted sleep after a 6.9-magnitude earthquake jolted Davao del Sur, killing at least five persons and leaving so many properties in rubbles. The death toll from the 6.9-magnitude earthquake in Davao del Sur rose to five as rescue personnel retrieved a third bod...

By Macon Araneta Believing the Universal Health Care(UHC) will take a "back seat" because the sin tax bill will not be passed before Congress adjourns, Sen. Imee Marcos stressed that all prescription medicine should be exempted from value-added tax (VAT). "Why don’t we remove VAT from all medicines because no one wants to get sick and to have to buy medicine so let’s do that first of all…at least let’s help the public a little bit," said Marcos.  Marcos also took potshots ...

By William Casis “If the House of Representatives insists on passing Charter Change (Cha-cha), make it a point to include their return address because the Senate and the Filipino people will not accept it,”  said Senate Minority Leader Franklin Drilon. Drilon said the proposal to amend the Constitution is not a priority in the upper chamber, echoing the statement earlier made by Senate President Vicente Sotto III. “Our counterparts in the lower house have the fighting spir...

By Macon Araneta The global education survey Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) 2018 — which ranked the Philippines the lowest in Reading and second to the lowest in Science and Math among 79 countries —  also shows that Filipino students are the most exposed to bullying .  Sen. Win Gatchalian calls on the Department of Education (DepEd) to strictly enforce and monitor anti-bullying measures in schools, reiterating the need for child protection since the ...

By Beting Laygo Dolor, Contributing Editor If the Duterte administration wants to resume peace talks with the underground communist movement, they must be held in neutral territory. This condition was set last week by Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) founder Jose Maria ‘Joma’ Sison, after the President the previous week raised the possibility of resuming peace talks with the world’s oldest active communist insurgency. President Rodrigo Duterte authorized Labo...