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December 18
Lest you think I am telling tall stories, I better correct the information I gave about Coron. I meant Cuyo instead. I realized this during my visit to the Palawan Museum.

Holiday Season, Palawan Museum and Palawan Tribals With “misa de gallo” (so called because it is held very early morning when the cocks begin to crow), gold buntings all over town, lanterns and street decorations, even colorful little Christmas trees sitting on top of decorated tricycles , it is indeed the holiday season in Puerto Princesa. This is the time when the tribal and indigenous people of Palawan, some in their colorful native attire and head gear descend from the mountains in droves, babies and families in tow vending some thing or other or carrying their guitars or native instruments to sing carols, some in their native dialects for money. The city folks treat them as mendicants. I heard a woman complain condescendingly to a group of tribals to sing something else because she had heard the songs before.

WEST POINT, New York - It was a great day for the Philippines at West Point over the weekend.

One of its sons, Carl de Leon Liwanag graduated from the United States Military Academy another, Mario Feliciano, took command of the corps’ Cadet Field Training Regiment, a first for a Filipino. Christy Isis Achanzar also moved a step closer to becoming the first Filipina to graduate from the prestigious academy.

Only 739 out of 2,422 actually voted

WASHINGTON - Filipino-American voters in Washington DC and surrounding states were a virtual no-show in the midterm elections, according to figures released by the Philippine embassy.

Of 2,422 ballots mailed to registered voters living within the embassy jurisdiction which covers mainly the southern states including Florida and the US naval base in Guantanamo, Cuba only 739 were returned either by post or in person.

MANILA – A top-ranking US State Department official said May 25 the May 14 mid-term elections in the Philippines were “generally successful” despite reports of violence and fraud.

“I know there have been some problems with violence. But I would say overall the elections have been very successful and a real sign that the Philippines has a very well-developed democracy. It has never been an easy process," Christopher Hill, US State Department assistant secretary for East Asia and the Pacific, said over Radyo ng Bayan.

Hill, the key US official who joined the six-nation group that negotiated the nuclear agreement with North Korea, arrived in Manila May 24 to attend the meeting of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean).

MANILA - Unfazed by the murder of Peace Corps colunteer Julia Campbell in Ifugao province in Luzon last month, 64 more volunteers arrived in Manila May 12 to speed up development programs in poor rural communities in Luzon and the Visayas.

The US Embassy said following their three months of intensive Filipino language and technical training, the Peace Corps volunteers will stay in he country until 2009. The new batch is the 266th group of US Peace Corps Volunteers to serve in the country.

BOSTON – Human rights advocate Ninotchka Rosca and former political prisoner under Marcos recentlyr lamented how many illegal immigrants in the United States are forced to take desperate jobs for low pay and stressed the need for equal rights for women around the world last night at the Boston University Howard Thurman Center.

TACURONG CITY, Sultan Kudarat -Three people were killed and 30 others were injured when a homemade bomb exploded downtown last week, police said.

They said the victims, mostly pedestrians and sidewalk vendors, died or were injured when the bomb went off in a pool hall along Bonifacio Street around 4:45 p.m. Probers are investigating to determine whether the attack was part of a terror plot or election-related, said Chief Supt. Felizardo Serapio, Central Mindanao police director. He said police were not discounting the possibility that the attack was politically motivated.

LOS ANGELES – The California Preservation Foundation is honoring both the Little Manila Foundation and the Grammy-winning hip-hop group, Black Eyed Peas in their efforts at trying to preserve the largest Filipino American neighborhood, Little Manila in Stockton.

LOUISA COUNTy, Virginia – A county judge May 21 revoked the bail bond of Fr. Rodney L. Rodis for violating the terms of his $25,000 bail bond and ordered him jailed until his trial in October.

Rodis is accused of stealing as much as $1 million from two Louisa churches where he used to serve as pastor.

VALLEJO, California – The Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Program in collaboration with the Bay Area Filipino Centennial Committee and the Filipino American National Historical Society (FANHS) held a symposium May 5 on Filipino American history to herald the remarkable experiences of Filipino people and families who lived in America since the first sustained migration of Filipinos in the country.

OZAMIZ CITY – The Philippine Coast Guard (PCG) has not ruled out the possibility of terrorism in the engine room explosion that killed three crew members and injured 11 others on an inter-island vessel that was on its way to Ozamiz City from Cebu May 15.

CLEVELAND – Asian immigrants in Ohio say visa backlogs are keeping families split up and that the problem is not getting enough attention in the national debate over immigration policy.

“They’re worried a new law will not consider people like them,’ said Margaret Wong, an immigration lawyer with many Asian clients. “They’re worried it will only cover Latinos and not Asians."

TACLOBAN CITY – The clan of former First Lady Imelda Romualdez-Marcos still weaves magic in local politics here with the election of her nephew Alfred Romualdez as mayor of this Visayan city.

UNITED NATIONS – Children and their families in 700 remote villages in conflict-ravaged southern Philippines have received essential health care, many for the first time in their lives, through a historic truce arranged with Muslim rebels, the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) announced.

Judge Thomas C. Wheeler of the United States Court of Federal Claims in Washington, D.C. denied April 27 the U.S. government “motion for a more definite statement of Plaintiff’s claims,” saying, “the Court concludes that the Complaint is not so vague or ambiguous as to deprive Defendant (U.S. government) of the ability to reasonably discern and respond to the allegations therein.”

Judge Wheeler ordered the U.S. government, represented by Assistant Attorney General Peter D. Keisler, Acting Director Jeanne E. Davidson, Assistant Director Donald E. Kinner and Kenneth S. Kessler of the Commercial Litigation Branch of the Civil Division of the Department of Justice in Washington , D.C. , to file its (Defendant’s) answer on or before May 11, 2007.