Tag: Ad Lib

Ditas De Los Santos-Yamane is a Filipino-American who is running for mayor of National City in San Diego County. Yamane, who is a licensed real estate broker, is a tireless community worker. Every festival or fair of the Fil-Am community and every civic initiative that the city mounts will likely have her among the workhorses. She has also served as president of the local chamber of commerce and is chair of the city’s planning commission and committee on government affairs of the Pacific Southwest Association of Realtors.

A trip to the Holy Land had always been a key item in my bucket list (the things I need to see or do before I leave this world). But my wife had serious reservations, perceiving Israel as a country constantly in a state of war and threatened by terrorists.

We’ve seen how politicians in power get the things they want and to hell with the law or due process. The arrest of Senator Antonio Trillanes IV is what is called in Tagalog, santong paspasan or barasuhan. It’s also called railroading.

Senate President Tito Sotto (he of Eat Bulaga fame) has proposed revising the final lines of the Philippine national anthem. He thinks the original lyrics, written in 1898 by Julian Felipe (“Aming ligaya na pag may mangaapi, ang mamatay nang dahil sa iyo”) is defeatist. Instead he has proposed the lines, “...ang ipaglaban ang kalayaan mo.”

With all of the bad news coming out of Manila, like typhoons, runaway inflation and Duterte lawyer Salvador Panelo, I felt a need to inject some happy thoughts into the prevailing atmosphere. So I went through my Happiness File (I have all kinds of files) and found the following gem: Happiness is a Filipino.

IN grade school in Tacloban, Leyte, what we pupils dreaded most was to be told by the teachers, “Bobo…better go home and plant kamote!”

IN DEATH Sen. John McCain was honored by colleagues whom he disagreed with, even fought with and who considered him a disloyal maverick during his long tenure as a politician.

IF anyone were to tell a foreigner that the Philippines is a poor country and Filipinos can hardly afford three meals a day, he’d never believe it if he were to see the eating and drinking places in Manila. They are all full.

On a visit to Baguio a few months ago, the hotel we stayed had several young people working at the front desk, in the restaurant, and as bell hops. What struck me was the fact that they were all working for free.

IF the structure of the Philippine government is supposed to have been patterned after that of the United States, why wasn’t the federal system of America also applied to the Philippines?

Presidents Donald Trump and Rodrigo Duterte have both been accused of criminal behavior, the former for allegedly obstructing justice and colluding with a foreign arch enemy, and the latter for allegedly enriching himself in office. But how each one has handled the accusations provides insights into the way justice is dispensed in the United States and in the Philippines.

One of President Manuel L. Quezon’s immortal quotables was, “My loyalty to my party ends where my loyalty to my country begins.” Sadly, both in the Philippines and in the United States, these are “famous lost words” — lost in the struggle for political survival.

DUI is a dreaded term among vehicle drivers in the US. It means Driving Under the Influence of alcohol or drugs.

Baguio City is one of the genuine tourism treasures of the Philippines. But for those of us who haven’t been to the City of Pines for years (especially those living overseas), the horror stories told about Baguio are enough to discourage any plans to make a trip.

It should now be clear to those who have to deal with him that President Rodrigo Duterte is not inclined to listen to anybody but himself. Even his own daughter, Mayor Sara Duterte of Davao City has advised people not to pay too much attention to what her father says about religion and God.

President Rodrigo Duterte’s rantings against the Catholic Church and against God Himself, calling the Lord “stupid” for creating imperfect creatures in Adam and Eve and the snake (and, by extension, all mankind) may be forgivable if one considers his own tacit admission that he himself is imperfect, thus his kanto boy logic.

President Donald Trump has been all praise for North Korea’s Kim Jong Un and has yet to say anything negative about Russia’s Vladimir Putin. On the other hand, Trump was the classic contrarian in the recently concluded G7 Summit in Canada and he has engaged in a war of words with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.

On Feb. 21, 1972, President Richard Nixon made a historic trip to China, thus reestablishing ties with the Communist regime -- ties that had been broken since Mao Tse-tung and his forces took over the Chinese mainland in 1949.

Remember the classic retort of a mid-level government appointee of then newly installed President Joseph “Erap” Estrada when asked why he was engaging in graft so early in the administration’s tenure?

On CNN, the other day, one of the hosts suggested that a good sequel for President Donald Trump’s book, The Art of the Deal, should be entitled, The Art of the Lie.

The wedding of Prince Harry and bi-racial TV star, Meghan Markle, is a milestone in race relations as significant as the assumption of the...

The Tourism Secretary is gone. Long live the new Tourism Secretary. She is Bernadette Romulo-Puyat. Puyat is as qualified as any that the Philippine...

No, this is not a new movie version of Erich Maria Remarque’s classic, All Quiet on the Western Front. It is an unsolicited suggestion...

My friend Greg Garcia, who is a bona fide advertising guru, has a piece of advice for the ad agencies and advertisers responsible for...

Several years ago, then-Speaker Jose de Venecia spoke before the Filipino community at the Philippine Consulate in San Francisco. Expectedly, he gave a glowing...

I came upon a very interesting article in Foreign Policy Magazine written by Stephen M. Walt, a professor of international relations at Harvard University,...

Last Saturday, April 7, over two dozen surviving Filipino World War II veterans and the next of kin of those who had passed away...

To be inducted into the Order of the National Artists of the Philippines (Pambansang Alagad ng Sining ng Pilipinas) is, doubtless, the apex of...

George Orwell’s omnipresent Big Brother, which he predicted in his book, Nineteen Eighty-Four, written in 1949, may have already become a reality. And we...

I’m one of the few who have never been to Boracay, so I won’t know what I will be missing if President Rodrigo R....

At my favorite watering hole in Daly City, the guys are discussing the travails of President Donald Trump, some with sympathy, most with derision....

Communications Secretary Martin Andanar recently announced the launching of a satellite network, ostensibly to deliver the news directly to the far-flung barangays. The objective:...

The West Wing of the White House is where the office of the president of the United States is located, along with other executive...

In a moment of pique, I recently posted on social media that I always thought Harry Roque, spokesman of President Rodrigo Duterte, was “marunong”...

On April 7 at the historic Presidio in San Francisco, surviving Filipino World War II veterans or their next of kin living in Northern...

Two parallel issues (call them controversies or scandals -- your choice) involving the occupants of the White House and Malacañang have been hogging the...

The shutdown of online media outfit, Rappler, reminds me of a sequence in the film, Walking Tall, the biopic about Tennessee Sheriff Buford Pusser....

As I write this, President Donald Trump has just signed a bill representing a continuing resolution that would end the shutdown of the US...

According to critics, President Donald Trump is not just a racist, he is also a barefaced liar and a coward who doesn’t have the...

Mababaw ang kaligayahan loosely means easy to please. The recent Pulse Asia performance and trust ratings of President Rodrigo Duterte, which remain impressively high,...

The election of President Rodrigo Duterte raised hopes of a clean, corruption-free government that was also progressive and dynamic (unlike the passive and pass-the-buck...

If EDSA has become known as “carmageddon” (or the Armageddon of cars) because of the horrible traffic, Sucat Road aka as Dr. A. Santos...

A few weeks ago, I posted on Facebook two anti-drug abuse ads that I created back in 1972. The headline of one read, “Is...

It is said that if hindsight is a perfect science, that makes scientists of our country’s national leaders and bureaucrats. In administration after administration,...

Advertising is one indicator of changes in lifestyle, social mores, fashion, and language. One such development that has become apparent in US television commercials...