By William Casis i FilAm Star Correspondent Re-elected Cynthia Villar, the frontrunner in last May’s mid-term elections and world boxing champion Manny Pacquiao, were the only senators who entered the Billionaires’ Row in the Upper House of Congress. With a declared PHP 3,719,941,858.00 net worth as of December 31, 2018 on her statement of assets, liabilities and net worth (SALN) posted on the Senate website, Villar remains the wealthiest senator. Without any liabili...

By Macon Araneta i FilAm Star Correspondent The Senate under the 18th Congress will usher in four first-time senators, including the three who are close allies of President Rodrigo Duterte, three returning senators and five others who were given a fresh mandate for a second term of office after the May 13 mid-term polls. The three winning senators who are known to be close to the President are his former aide Christopher “Bong” Go, former Philippine National Police (PNP...

By Beting Laygo Dolor i Contributing Editor A campaign promise made by then candidate for President Rodrigo Duterte may soon become reality when the Senate passed a bill last week that would ban the practice of ‘endo,’ or end of contract employment. There’s just one catch. The Employers Confederation of the Philippines (ECOP), among others, says that ending the short term employment of hundreds of thousands or even millions of Filipinos would do more harm than good. ...

By Corina Oliquino i FilAm Star Correspondent MANILA -- Interior Sec. Eduardo Año announced on May 24 a $3 million counter-terrorism grant from non-profit Swiss foundation, Global Community Engagement and Resilience Fund (GCERF). The funding is part of GCERF’s partnership with the Duterte administration to provide funding for community-level initiatives aimed at stopping extremist movements following the country’s inclusion in August 2018. In a report by The Philippi...

By Corina Oliquino i FilAm Star Correspondent MANILA -- The National Privacy Commission (NPC) has cited rising privacy awareness among Filipinos, with Commissioner Raymund Liboro accounting it to the increasing number of complaints about alleged data privacy violations they received. In an interview with The Philippine Star, Liboro urged the private and government sectors to prioritize data privacy and protection as part of their continuing efforts to ensure the persona...

By Daniel Llanto i FilAm Star Correspondent A documentary filmed by the Emmy-winning British duo James Jones and Olivier Sarbil depicting the horrors of President Duterte’s war on drugs will be screened this weekend at the Hot Docus Film Festival in Toronto and never in the Philippines. Jones and Sarbil, who showed the film’s trailer to selected Manila reporters, indicated they dodged a Philippine screening to avoid incurring Duterte’s wrath. Duterte has publicly railed...

By Daniel Llanto i FilAm Star Correspondent As tons of new trash shipments from abroad were discovered, environmental groups in the Philippines questioned the global waste trade that is using the country as convenient disposal site for the garbage of rich nations. This as the Bureau of Customs (BoC) in Region 10 issued an alert order for nine 40-foot shipping containers from Australia loaded with 211.14 tons of waste materials declared as municipal waste or processed en...

By Macon Araneta i FilAm Star Correspondent Opposition Sen. Antonio Trillanes IV disclosed on May 27 that Peter Joemel Advincula (who said he was the “Bikoy,” the narrator in the Ang Totoong Narcolist video files) approached him through priests last year. Advincula claimed he is the hooded man in the controversial “videos, which implicated  President Rodrigo Duterte’s family and allies in the country’s illicit drug trade.” In a privilege speech, Trillanes said the pr...

By Rev. Fr. Tristan Jasper D. Laforteza As children, we were taught to work hard to achieve more – better grades, higher honors. Nothing’s changed as we grow up. You want a promotion? You better work extra hours. Want to buy your own car? Then you might want to look for a job with better pay. The world today is continuously teaching us to never settle for something when you can achieve something even greater. While desiring to have more is not necessarily a bad th...

Star Access Issue 528! To be featured in our Star Access column, please email [email protected] with pictures of your event and a short caption! Thank you! Filamstar Team