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MANILA-An approaching storm, warnings of terror attacks, and planned anti-government demonstrations in Manila have forced the Philippines to postpone the 10-nation Association of Southeast Asian Nations summit of leaders in Cebu city scheduled for Dec. 11-14.

WASHINGTON D.C.-President George W. Bush called the Philippines "a shining example of democracy," and President Arroyo his "close friend" and described his eight-hour state visit to Manila in October 2003 as "one of the best times" in his foreign travels. New Philippine ambassador to the US Willy Gaa said Bush made these remarks when he called on him at the White House on Friday (Dec .8) to present his credentials.

MANILA-The United States has demanded that it keep custody of US Marine Lance Corporal Daniel J. Smith who was sentenced to 40 years in prison by a Makati city court Dec. 4 for raping a Filipino woman in Subic in November last year. The judge also ordered that Smith be confined at the Makati city jail.

WASHINGTON-Filipino World War II veterans are within reach of getting full equity denied them by the US government over the past 60 years, the new Democratic chairman of the House Veterans Affairs Committee Bob Filner said.

More and more states in the United States are hiring qualified teachers from the Philippines.
The latest states included in the list are North Carolina, Virginia and Kansas. There are now hundreds of other Filipino teachers teaching in schools in Maryland, Texas, Las Vegas and other states where there are a lack of special education teachers. Many local newspapers have been covering the arrival of these teachers and narrating how the Filipino teachers are all coping with the weather and the different behavior of students in the US.

MANILA – The Judicial Bar Council, a group that recommends to the President a list of potential Supreme Court justices, recently scrapped Sen. Miriam Defensor Santiago from the list.
This angered her. She took the floor of the Senate to denounce retiring Chief Justice Artemio Panganiban, former Sen. Jovito Salonga and Justice secretary Raul Gonzales as the “masterminds” behind the removal of her name.

MANILA – Supreme Court Associate Justice Reynato Puno was appointed by President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo as the country's new Chief Justice Dec. 7, replacing Artemio Panganiban who has retired. Puno was sworn in by the President at Malaca±ang late in the same day.
He was one of the SC justices who voted in favor of a people’s initiative to amend the 1987 Constitution. The petition was junked by the high court because Panganiban voted against it. Arroyo's followers are now hoping that they can revive the People's Initiative and bring it before the Supreme Court again.

MANILA – Foreign governments have responded to an appeal by the Philippine government and the National Red Cross for assistance to the tens of thousands of victims of the super typhoon that struck the country, particularly the Bicol region, early this month.
(The National Federation of Filipino American Associations have asked Filipino Americans to donate money for the victims of the typhoon through the Philippine National Red Cross which is chaired by Sen. Richard Gordon. Donors should contct the embassy or NaFFAA as to how to send your donations.)

COLOMBIA – The Philippines and Sri Lanka offer women more equal treatment at work and in politics, education and health care overall than the US, where lawmaking is male-dominated, according to a World Economic Forum study.
A WEF study of the differences in social and economic opportunities between men and women worldwide finds Sweden with the smallest gap, followed by Norway and Finland, with the Philippines at sixth, Sri Lanka 13th, Colombia 21st and the U.S. 22nd. The study, published today, examined 115 economies.

Denounce House move as scandalously immoral, illegitimate, fraudulent

MANILA – Religious, opposition and activist groups have joined the call of the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines to hold massive rallies and demonstrations against the move by the House of Representatives to change the Constitution.

The New York Times last month wrote an article about the rise of call centers in the Philippines because of lower cost, employee loyalty and cultural similarities with the United States.
D. Greenlees of the NY Times said that as India moves up-market in outsourcing, the Philippines is quickly gaining a share of the customer-service call center business. It may be a low-end, low-margin business, but for the Philippines it has been an employment boon.

MANILA-President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo on Dec. 7 conferred the Pamana ng Pilipino award on a blind Filipino American lawyer who has been appointed to a key position in the office of United States President George W. Bush.
The awardee is Olegario "Ollie" Cantos VII, who has been appointed Associate Director on Disabilities of the White House Domestic Policy Council in the Executive Office of the US president, the highest designated position given to a disabled individual in the federal government today.

VIRGINIA BEACH – The Virginian-Pilot reported in its Dec. 3 issue wrote about the empowerment conference of the National Federation of Filipino American Associations (NaFFAA) and the Filipino Americans’ continuing connection with the Philippines.
Hattie Brown Garrow cited how some speakers at the conference called on Filipino Americans to be more involved in businesses, politics and social issues such as immigration and health.

WASHINGTON D.C.-The Philippines will issue a tender in the next few weeks for the delivery in early 2007 of up to 60,000 metric tons of rice under Title 1of US Public Law 480 to ensure an uninterrupted delivery of the commodity following an uproar over the discovery of a genetically modified (GM) strain in US rice stocks.