The Filipino Press: February 24-29, 2024

By Sir Milo loftin/CSDCo

SAN DIEGO, CA -- The Federal

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at 1-800-621-3362

you will be asked to confirm:

• Your

•

1 You will confirm what damages or expenses you had from the flooding and what assistance you need.

2 You will be taken to login.gov where you can create a new account or sign into an existing account.

3 You will be returned to disasterassisstance.gov to complete

SAN DIEGO, CA -- Acclaimed content and conference producer INGEÑUITY announces its Women’s History Month kick-off celebration, FEMME! 2024 Power Confab & Retreat, presented by AARP, Comcast NBCUniversal Telemundo, and INGEÑUITY. The event is scheduled for February 29-March 1, at the Fairmont Grand Del Mar in San Diego, California.

FEMME! 2024 will Celebrate + Illuminate + Elevate at a two-day Power Confab & Retreat designed to stimulate the senses, fuel creativity, foster mentoring and empower women!

Diamond sponsors include Panasonic, Nopalera, and Yoga Design Lab.

FEMME! 2024 is a gathering of more than 300 multicultural sheroes, disruptors, changemakers, thought-leaders, visionaries and power brokers. FEMME! 2024 featured guests include acclaimed Journalist, Bestselling Author, Entrepreneur, Mother, Former First Lady of California, Maria Shriver. Shriver, is a trailblazer for empowering women and one of the world’s leading advocates for women and Alzheimer’s. Shriver serves as an inspiration for others to become “Architects of Change” and make the world a better place. Among the announced FEMME! Awardees include women “firsts,” with Rosario Marin, First MexicanBorn Treasurer of the United States, and Dr. Antonia Novello, the first woman and first Hispanic to serve as U.S. Surgeon General.

"FEMME is focused on recognizing and celebrating women's accomplishments that have made and are making, lasting

impact. We are thrilled to feature trailblazing thought-leaders in celebration of Women's History Month! This event provides a platform for a robust exchange of ideas, personal stories and real talk for women and those that are supportive of women." said Sarah Ruiz Chávez, FEMME! Power Confab & Retreat Creator and President of INGEÑUITY.

Among renowned illuminators that attendees will hear from include: First woman of color, first Latina, Chairwoman of the San Diego Commission, Nora Vargas, Author, Radio & TV Personality, Maria Marin, President and CEO, Latino Donor Collaborative, Ana Valdez, Founder and CEO of Nopalera, Sandra Velasquez,

Chief Administrative & Marketing

SAN DIEGO, CA -- San Diego County District Attorney Summer Stephan was joined recently by the mayors from cities across San Diego County as well as business leaders, crime victims and other concerned citizens in an effort to inform the public and boost signature gathering to place the Homelessness, Drug Addiction, and Theft Reduction Act on the November ballot. The measure would make communities, businesses, and streets safer and healthier by restoring the rule of law, holding repeat retail thieves and fentanyl dealers better accountable, and incentivizing individuals who are addicted and homeless to accept life-saving treatment.

The following mayors are all supporting the signature gathering effort: Vista Mayor John Franklin, Escondido Mayor Dane White, El Cajon Mayor Bill Wells, National City Mayor Ron Morrison, Chula Vista Mayor John McCann, San Marcos Mayor Rebecca Jones, La Mesa Mayor Mark Arapostathis, Santee Mayor John Minto, Oceanside Mayor Esther Sanchez, Coronado Mayor Richard Bailey, Carlsbad Mayor Keith Blackburn, Solana Beach Mayor Lesa Heebner, Encinitas Mayor Tony Kranz, and Poway Mayor Steve Vaus.

“This is a balanced, commonsense initiative that addresses the fentanyl crisis by going after drug dealers who are killing our loved ones and imposes stronger penalties for repeat offenders of organized retail theft, which is hurting far too many families and local businesses,” said DA Stephan. “We need responsible reform that allows judges to

incentivize life-saving treatment for those struggling with severe addiction, holds repeat offenders accountable but also gives first, second, and even third chances for those who commit theft or possess hard drugs to be treated for addiction or mental illness. Voters should have the opportunity to debate and weigh in on this important initiative.”

The measure has collected more than 360,000 signatures from California voters to place it on the November ballot, but nearly 550,000 valid signatures are needed.

The ballot measure is designed to fix the unintended consequences and harmful impacts of Proposition 47, which passed in 2014 and— for example— made retail theft under $950 and drug possession of methamphetamine and fentanyl into misdemeanors no matter how many times the crime is repeated.

"Neighborhood markets are the lifeblood of our communities,” said

your application and send it to FEMA.

SAN DIEGO HOMEOWNERS

PROPERTY TAX RELIEF

Tax relief are available to homeowners whose home were destroyed or ravaged by the Jan 22nd rainstorm and floodings says San Diego County Assessor, Recorder, and County Clerk Jordan Z. Marks (ARCC) for an amount greater than $10,000

“My office is ready to help all property owners who suffered damages to their properties from the recent rainstorms and floods and encourages disaster survivors to complete and submit their applications.”

The San Diego County's ARCC tax relief program allows a reduction on property assessment especially when after the damage, it lowers the property value and will continue to be effective until the property is completely rebuilt or restored, says Jordan Marks. Applications for property tax relief must be filed within 12 months since Jan. 22, 2024. Applications can be obtained by visiting www.sdarcc.gov or calling their office directly at 619-531-6130. Or if you need more information about the tax relief program to see if you qualify.

Storm-Related Tax Relief Available for Property Owners also

Neighborhood Market Association President Arkan Somo. “Proposition 47 unleashed a tidal wave of theft and violence that harms our small business owners, their employees and families, and most importantly, our customers. This proposed ballot measure will give law enforcement the tools it needs to keep all of us safe. "

Unintended Consequences of Prop 47 and current laws include:

• Homelessness increased 51% in California while decreasing 11% in states with more balanced laws.

• Homeless individuals in San Diego County are dying of drug overdoses at a rate 118 times higher than the general public.

• Overdose deaths from illicit fentanyl have more than tripled, claiming more young lives in San Diego County than any other cause.

• Organized retail theft has

The Pampered Pinay Lifestyle

By FRANCINE m AIgu E

I was once asked, “Just how much should a person be pampered?”

I believe in taking the time to pamper yourself everyday. After all, if we don’t take good care of ourselves, we can’t expect anybody else to. With that said, my idea of “pampering” is one that fits our current time and economic state. Our recession forced us to reprioritize, and thus redefined what it means to be “pampered.” With a shift in perspective, resources, and financial stability, I found it appropriate to develop a Pampered Pinay Lifestyle that encompasses a level of self-respect and encourages balance.

The Pampered Pinay Lifestyle is about treating yourself well-without guilt or remorse. All too often we take such good care of others but forget to do the same for our own mind, body, and resources. I believe that with the right tools and daily commitment, we can all find the satisfaction that we not only desire, but rightfully deserve.

Sure, you could pamper yourself with lavish, expensive, material belongings…but The Pampered Pinay Lifestyle is so much more… The Pampered Pinay Lifestyle is about recognizing the infinite value of your health, your relationships, your time,

your talents—your potential for greatness… It’s about a positive quality of life that celebrates what it means to be uniquely you, one day at a time.

Healthy Homemade Chips: Pamper your weekend couch potato. Substitute the usual (calorie-laden) suspects with healthful, flavorful, equally snackable options. Current fave: Homemade Kale Chips Don’t let a case of the Monday’s

get you down. Start off the work week in a rejuvenating way. Take some time at night to relax and reflect. Why wait ’til Friday to treat yourself well? Personally, I tend to get my best ideas when I allow myself to escape, indulge, and brainstorm…while receiving a massage early in the week. I hope it works for you, too!

Bonus Tips: Combine equal parts brown sugar, olive oil, and raw oats for an exfoliating scrub. Apply the mixture with slow, circular, soft massage strokes. Wipe off the sugar mixture with a warm, damp washcloth.

Mash up an avocado with a little milk for a moisturizing body masque. Apply the avocado mixture with slow, deeper, longer massage strokes. Leave the masque on for a few minutes. Wipe off the avocado mixture with another warm, damp washcloth.

Don’t forget your favorite “happy place” playlist…For starters, I recommend “Slow Me Down” by Emmy Rossum and just about any song by Malika Ayane.

Take some deep breaths… Enjoy…You deserve it.

What are some of your favorite “let me escape the world for a moment” rituals, my pampered friends?

Pamper your end-of-theyear financial goals and plans… beginning today. If you are able to save just $3.22 everyday, from today ’til the end of the year, you’ll have over $1,000 to ring in the New Year with. So…what are your goals, hopes, and plans, my pampered friends? A holiday trip…a fancy gift…paying off debt by the time the New Year starts? Put that piggy bank to good use…every lil bit really does add up. Cha-ching!

311 days left in 2024

311 x $3.22 = $1,001.42

How would YOU pamper yourself with $1,000, my pampered friends?

Check back every week for ways to pamper yourself and those you love. Why? The answer is simple: YOU DESERVE IT!

2024 Presidensyal na

Primaryang Eleksyon

Boboto para sa presidente? Ang inyong rehistrasyon para sa pampulitikang partido ang tutukoy kung sinong mga presidensyal na kandidato ang makikita sa inyong balota. Matuto nang higit pa sa sdvote.com.

Bukas Araw-Araw ang mga Vote Center mula

Ika-24 ng Pebrero – Ika-5 ng Marso.

Kumpletuhin ang inyong balota sa ginhawa ng inyong tahanan. Pirmahan, at petsahan ang inyong sobreng pagbabalikan, i-seal ang inyong nakumpletong balota sa loob, at ibalik ito sa pamamagitan ng U.S. Postal Service - hindi kinakailangan ng selyo!

Ibalik ang inyong balota sa alinmang opisyal na mga ballot drop box ng Tagapagrehistro sa buong county na magsisimula sa Martes, Ika-6 ng Pebrero hanggang sa Araw ng Eleksyon, Martes, Ika-5 ng Marso. Iwasan ang mahahabang pila sa pamamagitan ng paggamit ng benepisyo sa maagang pagboto! Simula Sabado, Ika-24 ng Pebrero, magbubukas araw-araw ang mga vote center mula ika-8 ng umaga hanggang ika-5 ng hapon hanggang Lunes, Ika-4 ng Marso. Sa Araw ng Eleksyon, Martes, Ika-5 ng Marso, ang mga oras ng botohan ay mag-iiba mula ika-7 ng umaga hanggang ika-8 ng gabi.

Humanap ng ballot drop box o vote center na malapit sa inyo sa sdvote.com

“Happy Piggy”

“At-Home-Spa”

“Kale”

ATENTION LADIES!!

Kick off Women’s History Month at FEMME! 2024 Power Confab & Retreat on Friday, March 1, at the Fairmont Gran Del Mar in San Diego, CA! Join a gathering of sheroes, disruptors, and changemakers. Get rejuvenated and inspired! Register at FEMMEconfab. com.#FEMME2024 #womenshistorymonth COME AND MEET TRAILBLAZERS, FORMER U.S. SURGEON GENERAL,DR. ANTONIA NOVELLO AND 41ST TREASURER OF THE UNITED STATES, ROSARIOMARIN AMONG HONOREES

Brought to you by AARP, Comcast NBCUniversal Telemundo, and INGEÑUITY who will Convene Over 300 CEOs, C-suite executives, creators, entrepreneurs, professionals, educators, and more!

Water supply, rice yield enough amid El Niño

MANILA -- The National Irrigation Administration (NIA) on Wednesday assured the public that the country's water supply and rice yield are adequate and unaffected despite the effects of the El Niño phenomenon.

In a radio interview, NIA Acting Administrator Eduardo Guillen said they have already made preparations with partner agencies in line with the whole-of-government approach directed by President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr.

“Nakapaghanda ho kami, pati DOLE, DSWD, DPWH, tumulong po sa amin. Sapat po, again sinasabi ko na po sa inyo, tataas pa po ang ating ani (We’re prepared. Even the Department of Labor and Employment, the Department of Social Welfare and Development, and the Department of Public Works and Highways have assisted us. It’s sufficient, again, I’m saying that we would even have a yield increase),” he said.

In Nueva Ecija, Guillen said only 7,000 hectares out of the 50,000 vulnerable hectares have not been supplied with water from the Pantabangan Dam.

He said this is relatively low compared to the NIA’s service area of 90,000 hectares of irrigated land in the province.

“Nagpa-practice po kami ng Alternate Wetting and Drying (AWD) technique kaya mas marami kaming napatubigan (We are practicing AWD technique that’s why we have supplied to more areas),” Guillen said.

The AWD technique is one of the water-saving technologies used by the Department of Agriculture (DA) to aid rice farmers in reducing water consumption over their irrigated fields.

Guillen said areas that will not be covered by water irrigation supply are being informed in advance of the alternatives they may take while waiting for their turn.

“Yung mga nasa dulo ng ating irigasyon, inadvise-an natin na magtanim na ng high-value crops at ito naman pong mga sinabihan nating pwedeng magtanim ay siguradong mabibigyan natin sila ng patubig (Those who are at the end of our irrigation were advised to plant high-value crops, and those who have been given the go signal to plant rice are sure to receive irrigation),” he said in a separate radio interview.

Rice sufficiency feasible

Guillen, meanwhile, expressed confidence over the feasibility of rice sufficiency in the country by 2028.

“Hindi naman po rocket science itong ginagawa natin. Common sense lang at tsaka simple math (What we are doing is not rocket science. It’s just common sense and simple math),” he said.

The irrigation chief cited various strategies including the increase of irrigated lands, boosting yield and increased cropping intensity through a cropping calendar tweak.

“Ipapasok namin yung aming pagsasaka sa dry season. Dapat maka-dalawang cropping po tayo so iwas pa po ng bagyo yun at mataas po ang yield noon kasi maaraw po. So sabi ko bakit kasi tayo sumasabay sa mga ulan e mayroon naman tayong irigasyon (We will start

farming during the dry season. We should have two cropping cycles so we could avoid storms and our yield will increase because it’s summer. I was wondering why are we even farming during the rainy season if we have irrigation),” he said.

The NIA plans to secure two cycles of rice yields by moving the start of the cropping calendar to October-February and March-July.

Guillen said the country only needs 4.6 million metric tons of palay or unhusked rice to produce 3 million metric tons of rice, or equivalent to the usual rice import volume.

To achieve this, he said the country needs to increase the average yield from 4.1 tons to 6 tons per hectare.

“Hindi naman po imposible na ma-reach yung ating 6 tons (per hectare yield) kasi yung ibang farmers natin nakikita natin pag dry season, umaabot pa po ng 8 tons e (It’s not impossible to reach the 6 tons per hectare yield because we are seeing some of our farmers reach as much as 8 tons (per hectare yield) during dry season),” he added.

To date, Guillen said the NIA has utilized its almost doubled budget for the restoration of irrigation facilities, implementation and installation of solar pump irrigation systems, and securing aid to farmers in partnership with other government agencies, among others. (MNS)

Gov’t ready to provide alternative livelihood for farmers amid El Niño

The government may provide alternative livelihood assistance to farmers with “irrecoverable” agricultural land because of the effects of El Niño, the coordinating body tasked to mitigate the impacts of the phenomenon said Tuesday.

Task Force El Niño spokesperson and Communications Assistant Secretary Joey Villarama said the government is ready to provide immediate assistance to farmers who will bear the brunt of the weather phenomenon.

“Kung napinsala ‘yung lupa (If the land is damaged), let’s see if we can still replant the same crop. Pero kung hindi, magbigay tayo ng (But if not, let's provide an) alternative crop,” Villarama said during the Bagong Pilipinas Ngayon Program aired over state-run PTV-4.

“Doon po talaga sa hindi na salvageable, hindi na recoverable at hindi na puwedeng magamit iyong lupa, puwede naman po tayong magbigay ng alternative forms of livelihood. I understand, nakapagbigay po tayo ng domestic animals sa mga farmers like kambing, itik, native chicken para po ‘yung ang pansamantalang alagaan nila (For the land that is no longer salvageable, no longer recoverable and no longer usable, we can provide alternative forms of livelihood. I understand, we have been able to give domestic animals to farmers like goats, ducks, native chickens so that they can temporarily take care of them) for livelihood,” he added.

Villarama said affected farmers would also receive cash assistance from the government.

He said the government will not be complacent amid the threat of the El Niño phenomenon, adding that it

will take a “scientific” approach to ensure that the country has enough water, energy, and food supply.

Villarama also stressed the need to monitor senior citizens and the youth who may experience heat stroke and skin diseases related to extreme heat.

This, as he warned that the “strong and mature” El Niño that the country is currently experiencing may persist until May this year.

Fourteen of 41 provinces currently affected by El Niño are experiencing drought, 10 are under dry spell, and 17 are experiencing dry conditions, Villarama said.

On Saturday, Villarama said the government is on a tight watch over food prices, as well as water and power supply, as it anticipates El Niño to affect more provinces by the end of February.

The Task Force El Niño was reactivated, reconstituted and streamlined through Executive Order No. 53 signed by President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. on Jan. 19.

Under EO 53, President Marcos directed the task force to develop a comprehensive disaster preparedness and rehabilitation plan for El Niño and La Niña to provide “systematic, holistic, and results-driven interventions” to help the public cope and minimize their devastating effects. (MNS)

Gov’t on tight watch over food prices, power supply amid El Niño

The government is on a tight watch over food prices, water, and power supply as it anticipates the El Niño to affect more provinces by the end of February.

At a news forum in Quezon City on Saturday, Task Force El Niño spokesperson and Presidential Communications Office Assistant Secretary Joey Villarama said 41 provinces are currently affected by the weather phenomenon.

He said 10 more may be added to the list before March.

In Western Visayas and Zamboanga Peninsula alone, the government has monitored PHP151 million in losses in rice and corn.

Of the 41 provinces, 17 are currently experiencing dry conditions, 10 under dry spell, and 14 are experiencing drought.

“In terms of what is being monitored at kung ano po iyong binabantayan ng task force, ayon na rin sa direktiba ng ating Pangulo, iyan po ang food security, ang water supply, obviously power supply, health at saka po iyong kung magkakaroon po ng pagtaas sa mga presyo (based on the directive of the chief executive, we are monitoring our food security, water and power supply, health, and food prices),” Villarama said.

“Diyan po papasok iyong fiscal measures (This is where our fiscal measures will enter),” he added.

The official added that the Department of Health is monitoring water-borne and vector-driven diseases like cholera, typhoid fever, dengue, and chikungunya.

”So far, wala pa pong naitatala ang Department of Health na anumang outbreak (the DOH has not monitored any outbreak,” he -The weather bureau earlier said that strong effects of El Nino will persist until the end of March. (MNS)

DMW to regulate deployment of OFWs to Korea under sisterhood deal

MANILA -- The Department of Migrant Workers (DMW) will release next week the third set of guidelines for the deployment of Filipino seasonal workers to Korea.

In a press briefing on Monday, DMW officer-in-charge Undersecretary Hans Leo Cacdac said they are currently working with the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG), the Department of Justice (DOJ), concerned local government units (LGUs) in the country, the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA), the Philippine Embassy in Seoul, the Korean embassy in the Philippines and the Korean Ministry of Justice to improve policies.

Citing DMW data, Cacdac said there are about 3,353 Filipino seasonal workers in South Korea as of December 2023 who are employed under the Seasonal Worker Program (SWP), which is a clause under the sisterhood agrements between certain local government units of the two countries.

The SWP allows short-term employment of foreign agricultural workers in South Korea to address labor shortages during the peak planting and harvesting seasons. It is managed by the Korean Ministry of Justice and the Korean Immigration Service.

However, since deployment of workers started in 2022, Cacdac said the Migrant Workers Office in Seoul has received several complaints from overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) regarding questionable deduction in wages and involvement of brokers who collect exorbitant fees in hiring OFWs.

“Around 150 or so are the registered complaints by our Migrant Workers Office in Seoul and there are also five documented cases of physical abuse, five medical cases, and four deaths in the course of two years,” he said.

Cacdac said “while we recognize authorities of LGUs to enter into sisterhood agreements, there is unequivocal authority of DMW to step in and regulate (the hiring) for better protection of workers.”

“It is embodied in our charter and our mandate. It’s embodied in the Migrant Workers and Overseas Filipinos Act, (and is) embodied in the Constitution which affords protection to labor especially overseas workers,” he added.

On Jan. 11, DMW issued its Advisory 1, putting a moratorium on the deployment of seasonal workers to Korea for a temporary period of time.

A related advisory was also issued establishing a process for interim pipeline processing of Filipinos bound for South Korea under SWP, underscoring the need for adequate welfare and monitoring systems to better the welfare of the OFWs.

DMW pleased over Kuwait appeal court's conviction of Ranara killer The Department of Migrant Workers (DMW) welcomed the decision of the Kuwait Appeal Court upholding the conviction of the suspect in the murder of overseas Filipino worker Jullebee Ranara.

In a statement Wednesday night, DMW officer in charge Undersecretary Hans Leo Cacdac said the Gulf state's appellate court fully adopted the 16year imprisonment sentence against the accused -- one year for driving without a license and 15 years for murder.

"We have informed the Ranara family of the Court’s ruling and have assured them of our continued utmost support and assistance, as directed by

the President (Marcos)," he added.

Cacdac said he had a meeting with the Ranara family via Zoom and provided them a first-hand account of the developments in Kuwait.

He was joined in the session by Jullebee’s parents, and her brother, Emor, Overseas Workers Welfare Administrator Arnell Ignacio, Migrant Workers Office Kuwait (MWOKuwait) Labor Attaché Manuel Dimaano, Lawyer Khaled Al-Mass, the retained counsel of MWO-Kuwait handling the Ranara case, and other DMW officials.

"I have issued instructions to our Migrant Workers Office in Kuwait (MWO-Kuwait) to work with our retained legal counsel in filing a civil action for damages against the father of the convicted perpetrator," Cacdac said.

In September 2023, a juvenile court in Kuwait convicted the 17-year-old suspect.

Ranara, a 35-year-old household worker, was found dead in a desert in Kuwait in January 2023.

DMW, NCMF to further protect, empower Muslim OFWs

The Department of Migrants Workers (DMW) and the National Commission on Muslim Filipinos (NCMF) on Thursday signed an agreement for the overall welfare of Muslim Filipino migrant workers as well as those who wish to work abroad.

DMW Officer-in-Charge

Undersecretary Hans Leo Cacdac and NCMF Officer-in-Charge Yusoph Mando signed the memorandum of agreement (MOA) that outlines a comprehensive support mechanism for Muslim OFWs.

At the signing ceremony held at the DMW main office in Mandaluyong City, Cacdac committed to the full implementation of the agreement through all the stages of the Muslim OFWs’ overseas labor journey, from pre-departure orientation, deployment, and on-site employment to their eventual reintegration.

“Wala na kaming ibang gugustusin pa kundi magbigyan ng ganap na suporta, proteksyon, nararapat na assistance, at pagmamahal sa ating mga Muslim OFWs (We would not want anything else aside from providing full support, protection, appropriate assistance, and love for our Muslim OFWs),” Cacdac said.

Under the MOA, the DMW and the NCMF committed to collaborate on various initiatives that include developing a registration system for Muslim OFWs, conducting predeparture seminars with the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration (OWWA), and launching joint campaigns against illegal recruitment and human trafficking

Also included in the MOA is the provision of Arabic language training in collaboration with the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (TESDA) for those who desire to find jobs in Arabic-speaking countries.

Mando, meanwhile, expressed gratitude to the DMW saying that the partnership would greatly help Muslim Filipinos who are looking to find decent work and job opportunities abroad. (PNA)

Employees entitled to 100% service charge regardless of status -NAPC

Regular and non-regular employees will soon be entitled to receive 100 percent of the service charge paid by customers, the National Anti-Poverty

Commission (NAPC) said Monday.

In a Bagong Pilipinas Ngayon interview, NAPC Formal Labor and Migrant Workers Sector Alternate Sectoral Representative Danilo Laserna said the implementing rules and regulations of Republic Act 11360, or an act on service charges collected by hotels, restaurants and similar establishments, have been revised.

Under Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) Order No. 242, regular and non-regular employees — including contractual and agency workers— are covered, except for managerial employees.

“…Kasama iyong mga security guards, iyong mga chef, mga cooks ay kasama lahat dapat dito sa service charge na ito (security guards, chef, cooks must be included in this service charge),” Laserna said.

“Dati kasi, 85 percent ay mapupunta sa manggagawa at iyong 15 percent sa management (Before, 85 percent goes to the workers, and 15 percent goes to the management),” he added.

Service charge is collected by some hotels, restaurants and other similar establishments, in addition to the customers’ bills for services rendered.

Laserna said labor inspection of the establishments is important to ensure proper distribution of the service charge.

Concerned employees who are unable to receive their share of the service charge collected may complain to the DOLE or request assistance from the NAPC. They may also do so anonymously.

“Sa labor inspection ay maraming klaseng porma, puwedeng (In labor inspection, there are different types, forms). I mean anonymous complaint,” Laserna said.

He clarified that service charge is different from tips given by customers. He added customers may give tips for workers of establishments where service charge is not collected as its collection is not necessary.

14 more Filipinos leave Gaza

Fourteen more Filipinos have evacuated from the Gaza Strip to Cairo in Egypt through the Rafah border, the Philippine Embassy in Egypt said Sunday. The embassy reported that the Filipinos, along with two Palestinians, crossed the border on Feb. 17.

“This latest batch of repatriates is scheduled to leave Cairo on February 20, 2024 and will arrive in Manila on 21 February 2024,” the embassy said in a public advisory.

Meanwhile, a 63-year-old Catholic nun from the Missionaries of Charity is the only Filipino remaining in Gaza, Department of Foreign Affairs Undersecretary Eduardo de Vega earlier said. She chose to stay behind, refusing evacuation since the attacks started as their church served as a refuge for the people, de Vega added.

Last week, Philippine Ambassador to Jordan Wilfred Santos told the Philippine News Agency that they lost contact with the nun around late November. They tried to reach out to her but no one was answering the church's phone number.

Her church was reportedly hit by a sniper fire.

To date, 136 of the 137 Filipinos have been evacuated from Gaza to Egypt through the joint efforts of the Philippine Embassies in Cairo, Amman and Tel Aviv, and the DFAOffice of the Undersecretary for Migrant Workers Affairs. (MNS)

THE PEACE CORPS: WHAT YOU CAN DO

SAN DIEGO, CA -- Peace Corps

Week commemorates March 1, 1961, the day that President John F. Kennedy established the agency. The annual celebration honors how the Peace Corps fosters connections and contributions to meaningful change – in the United States and around the world.

In his inaugural address, President Kennedy, elevated the Peace Corps from a weapon in the United States’ Cold War arsenal, to a worldwide humanitarian mission in which he asked average Americans to take part: “To those people in the huts and villages of half the globe struggling to break the bonds of mass misery, we pledge our best efforts to help them help themselves, for whatever period is required –not because the Communists may be doing it, not because we seek their votes, but because it is right.”

The fight against communism, Kennedy said, was just one concern in “a struggle against the common enemies of man: tyranny, poverty, disease and war itself…Will you join in that historic effort? … And so, my fellow Americans: Ask not what your country can do for you --- ask what you can do for your country.”

In 1991, a year out of the Navy, I actually decided it was time to redirect my energies toward something of greater consequence. Peace Corps volunteers, I had long been aware, dedicated themselves for two years to living and working with people in poor countries. Nothing, it seemed to me, could be more worthwhile than that. When I told my wife that I was thinking of signing up, she reminded me that we still have children in college and that we both still had obligations for the family’s needs. That woke me up from my idealistic dreams and that quickly ended my desire for overseas volunteers’ work.

Later on, I happened to read an article in The New York Times that reawakened my interest, and made me look at the Peace Corps from another perspective. Some returned volunteers, it seemed, were upset about what viewed as the organization’s inappropriate compliance with the then Reagan administration’s foreign policy agenda. Volunteers had been dispatched to Grenada shortly after the United States’ 1983 invasion of the island nation, and massive numbers of volunteers were being sent to our country’s allies in Central America. The Peace Corps, the returnees thought, were tailoring its humanitarian mission to political interests. The Times article also mentioned that the Corps was planning a twenty-fifth-anniversary celebration. These two noteworthy items prompted me to look further into the organization as the subject of a possible future newspaper dissertation.

Early on, I discovered how far

FOR YOUR

my original idealized perception of the organization was from reality. I learned, for example, that many volunteers neither toughed it out in bug-ridden huts nor toiled at backbreaking work; they enjoyed fairly comfortable homes and performed jobs ranging from teaching high school to raising poultry to cataloguing plant species. I also discovered that of the then 130,000 people, who have served so far in the Peace Corps, almost 40 percent did not complete the standard two-year hitch. In fact, in the mid and late 1960s, generally considered the Peace Corps’ heyday, the number of volunteers who did not complete their first year reached an all-time high of 57 percent. These statistics suggested to me that the Corps was a lot more complex, and a lot less perfect, than I had always thought it to be.

Certainly, I learned that not all who joined were devoted idealists, and that the agency has sent legions of highly motivated volunteers into meaningless assignment. Moreover, the most popular conception of the Peace Corps – that it was President John F. Kennedy’s idea, and that it attracts only visionary college kids who performed essential work – grossly romanticizes an organization that, charged with ambiguous objectives, struggles to live up to its hallowed reputation. Truly, I was struck again and again by the disparity between what I had once personally assumed about the Peace Corps and what countless former volunteers were telling about in numerous publications.

The Peace Corps, I ultimately realized, is a kind of modern-day myth that projects an idealized portrait of the American character. “The Peace Corps is our dreams for ourselves,” waxed Look magazine in 1966, “and we want the world to see us as we see the volunteers – crewcuts and ponytails, soda-fountain types, hardy and smart and noble.”

I say over its sixty-three-year life span, despite the self-absorption of the “Me Generation” and the disillusionment of the Vietnam War, the qualities attributed to the Peace Corps – altruism, Yankee ingenuity, and egalitarianism – have endured, cloaking the organization in a protective mystique.

It is the point of this particular “Filipino Potpourri” edition to explore this mystique as it is revealed through from what I have read about the experiences of the volunteers – so, here are some of the “traces,” so to speak. With a communist agitator lurking behind every hut and tree, the Peace Corps took great care in deciding who went where. “We sent the marginal volunteers to the Philippines,” says one Peace Corps official, “because it was thought to be a safe country. The cream of the crop went to Ghana because Nkrumah was a left-leaning leader

The world is in deep turmoil –just read the headlines. The war between Israel and Hamas is nearing its fifth month with about 28,000 dead mostly on the Palestinian side, from the unabated bombing by Israel. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is not giving an inch unless all the hostages are released before the start of the holy Muslim month of Ramadan. Netanyahu has also listened to his far-right national security adviser to limit access to the holy site for Palestinians.

The next headline is Russia’s imprisoned opposition leader Alexie Navalny who was killed while imprisoned in a penal colony in Siberia. This is on top of the changing landscapes in Ukraine where the Russian military continues to bomb and kill civilian populations. Another headline is the humanitarian crisis in Sudan brought about by months of fighting between two warring groups

COUNTRY

representatives little time to develop the jobs in which volunteers could perform “the modern miracles” Kennedy had referred to in one of his campaign speeches.

“Our men were under tremendous pressure to make deals,” says Charlie Peters, the Peace Corps’ director of evaluation from 1961 to 1968. “They were heroes if they came back with a program in their pocket. So, the tendency was not to check out the jobs too carefully. Pakistan was the worst. In the first group of fifty-nine volunteers, only fifteen had real jobs.”

T.

“teacher’s aides.”

vying for supremacy. There are other smaller headlines involving scores of deaths from conflicts involving madmen, some of them professing strongly held religious beliefs, yet their actions betray natural laws for human conduct. Men have come up with reasons why killing is legit as a form of retribution or just war, rendering the biblical allusion to an “eye for an eye” in Leviticus as a permitted act of retribution.

The thing about men’s rage is that it is ego driven and does not always follow the principle of equitable justice. Countries with more powerful armies and weaponries tend to dictate the terms of war regardless of world opinion. The Hamas-Israel and Russia-Ukraine wars have religious overtones and their leaders have used religion to justify invasion and violence. Can a man truly entertain a

and we thought that would make it a tough assignment.”

However, the Cold War was the least of the volunteers’ concerns. The closest they actually got to it were the occasional articles in leftwing newspapers that described

them as Yankee imperialists, and accusations by radio broadcasts – from China, Russia, or Cuba –that they were really CIA agents.

The “tough assignment,” many volunteers found, was figuring out what it was the Peace Corps had sent them overseas to do.

“Only the most careful planning and negotiation can ensure (the Peace Corps) success,” President Kennedy had said in a message to Congress upon signing the executive order. But the urgency of getting the program on its feet left the first Peace Corps Director Sargent Shriver’s aides and field

Peace Corps Philippines is the United States Government’s premier volunteer program in the old country of ours. Since 1961, over 9,300 Peace Corps Volunteers have worked alongside Filipino community members in support of government and community development priorities. FYI: For more than six decades, Peace Corps Philippines’ staff and volunteers have served as coteachers, youth development facilitators, environmental experts, or filled other roles requested by the Philippines government host communities.

Even back in our beloved old homeland – where it was thought amicable Filipino-American relations would facilitate a large infusion of English teachers, many volunteers found themselves in half-baked assignment working as

In making arrangements with Filipino education officials, the Peace Corps neglected to consider the high unemployment rate among Filipino teachers at the time. The volunteers were already on their way when the Peace Corps office in Manila was informed that the Americans would not be teaching their own classes; they would be “teacher’s aides” instead. “The education official I met with said, ‘Maybe they’ll run a science project, or help the teacher’,” recounts Larry Fuchs, the first county director in the Philippines then. “We weren’t sure just what the relationship would be in the schools…It was a hope-forthe-best sort of thing,” says a staffer who planned the program. One volunteer described it as the “nevermind-about-the-job-go-out-and-bea-hero school of programming.”

Situations like those back in the Philippines was common…Period!

Notwithstanding, the teacher’s aides boondoggle back in the old homeland of ours – the education programs were some of the more successful ventures of the Peace Corps’ early years. For the first three years, such programs accounted for 62 percent of all volunteers. By assigning volunteers to teach in the schools, the Corps satisfied a pressing need of host countries as well as its own requirement to expand rapidly.

Unsettling questions about the disparity between the Peace Corps’ humanitarian objectives and political realities, however, still existed. “On the one hand, it is hard to see how a Peace Corps volunteer teaching English or building a fish pond in a village someplace is making a political statement,” a Peace Corps official said at a State Department gathering in 1977.

“On the other, we currently have a combined total of 68 volunteers in Jamaica and Tanzania (then under Socialist leaders Michael Manley and Julius Nyerere, respectively) and 490 in Korea and the Philippines (then under repressive right-wing leaders). I think that makes a political statement which the rest of the world reads very clearly whether we want them to or not.”

In 1969, a volunteer serving in the Philippines wrote that the Peace Corps “deflects criticism from the more distasteful elements of the American presence – the military, business and embassy communities. The youthful idealism and activity of the volunteers are an effective counterbalance to the offensive displays of whoring and drinking of soldiers on R & R.”

In its sixty-three-year history the Peace Corps has weathered far more serious reversals. The essential

spirit manages to prevail despite politics and bureaucratic fumbling. “We’ve said for years,” laughs one official by the name of Jon Keeton, “that the volunteers do pretty well in spite of us.”

While many volunteers criticize the Peace Corps for its poor planning, its susceptibility to politics, and its insufficient attention to providing meaningful assistance, they all recite what could be taken for the Peace Corps mantra: “It was the most profound experience of my life. I got more out of it than I was able to give.”

Some contend that the exposure of so many Americans to peoples of other countries, and vice versa, is by itself an extraordinary achievement. Others say that the Peace Corps should mark its accomplishments according to the actual assistance it renders, and trust that the crosscultural exchange will then follow naturally.

Conclusively, there is no doubt about it that the ambiguity of the Peace Corps’ purpose that deepens its mystique, and it is the volunteers’ experiences that ultimately illuminate that mystique.

Since 1961, 240,000 Americans have responded so far to President Kennedy’s inaugural address and served in more than a hundred countries under the banner of the Peace Corps. But the true story of this unique organization has never been fully told to the general public. We do need to continue exploring the volunteer experience and the institution’s political odyssey through twelve presidential administrations and more than six decades of social upheaval. The volunteers’ stories describing their day-to-day efforts to make a difference will chronicle the evolution of an organization shaped as much by America’s social and political climate as by its good intentions.

Conceived in the heat of a political campaign, the Peace Corps thereafter became a magnet for draft avoiders. The Nixon Administration then welcomed volunteers from the “silent majority”; Jimmy Carter ushered in the dogma of “Basic Human Needs”; Ronald Reagan insisted that volunteers embody traditional values; and George Bush offered Peace Corps volunteers as a low-cost gift to post-Communist Eastern Europe. Lastly, I say we must abandon the romance of selfless do-gooders digging wells and latrines and living in mud huts infested with large insects, if we must have an honest account of this well-loved but little-understood American institution.

Mabuhay!

And God bless the U.S. of A.!

The Conflict between Soul and Body

world view that he is a defender of Christianity and yet violates the very Christian edict of “thou shall not kill” or that “judgement is God’s domain?” It does appear that these leaders have taken the law into their hands to render judgement on life and liberty of other human beings.

If Jesus Christ is alive today trying to referee these warring factions, he will probably be nailed to the cross again and killed.

It appears that these leaders are going through a crisis of the mind where the body and soul are not working in harmony to support each other’s strength. The soul knows what is good, right, or just and is primed to follow or pursue what is dictated. Yet the untamed body with its animal instinct can clash with what is ethical and moral. Plato, a Greek philosopher was spot on when he shared his concept of “self” that our true self is the intellect that drives the soul separate from the body.

Radhanath Swami, an American Hindu guru theorized that “if our mind is in conflict, not balanced with our body and with the needs of the soul, then there is disunity in our life. Only if we have unity within ourselves, we can create unity in the

world around us.” In simple terms, a person whose mind is in conflict is a person having mental issues. How can a leader of a country create unity that he himself doesn’t have?

Frankly, these leaders have lost their moral compasses and allowed the body to dominate their decisionmaking process. Societal pressures, personal ambitions and motivations create an artificial need or desire to fill an internal hole in their psyche. Russia’s Vladimir Putin pine for the glory days of the USSR and convinced himself that he can revive such desire by invading the former republics. Putin, however, recognizes the immorality of his desire so he enlists the imprimatur and blessing of the Russian Orthodox Church Patriarch Kirill of Moscow to add a moral dimension to the invasion of Ukraine.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu faces jail time for corruption and wants to muzzle the country’s highest court. The people of Israel, however, would not countenance Netanyahu’s naked ambition, pouring to the streets of Tel Aviv to side with the highest court in preserving the independence of the country’s judicial system. So, he aligned himself with ultra-

conservative Jews and religious Zionists, and formed a radical new government that in essence, gave him absolute power in seeing to it that the Palestine people are driven out of Israel.

Aristotle, another Greek philosopher believed in the inseparability of body and soul. Meaning, if a person wants to love somebody, both the soul and the body act in tandem. For example, if Netanyahu truly loves his country, then his body provides the motion to affect such desire. Stated differently, Netanyahu does not have second thoughts about leveling Gaza regardless of the attendant deaths with imprecise bombings.

Aristotle, however, provided a caveat that reasoning is independent from the body unless reasoning requires imagination, which is the domain of the soul, then reasoning requires the body participation. The Bible tends to agree with Aristotle’s theory about the inseparability of body and soul (our natural way of living) and the alchemy of the independent spirit.

For centuries disciples of Jesus have spoken of the “three enemies of the soul” – the world, the flesh, and the devil. The greatest enemy

to human souls is the self-righteous spirit (versus God’s or the Holy Spirit) which makes men look to themselves for salvation. Putin and Netanyahu’s body and soul conflict are metaphors of their moral struggle to stay in power at all costs by pursuing their own selfrighteousness even if it inflicts evil things in the process. Both men have served in the military and presumably were bound by ethical precepts during their service in defense of their homelands with honor and dignity. In the process, however, they became part of the state’s killing apparat. Their perspectives have clearly evolved for the worse once they themselves became leaders of their respective countries. For political survival, they dug deep to their past military spirit.

Lord Acton said it, “Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.”

Pope Francis became the voice of reason when he called for peace between Israel and Palestinians and for the conflict to be resolved “through sincere and preserving dialogue between the parties, sustained by strong political will

Jesse

Reyes Filipino Potpourri

ANOTHER TIME, ANOTHER PLACE: The author (left) and his high school classmate Eddie (right) posed for posterity with Peace Corps Volunteer Marilyn Palmer (center) at the National Secondary Schools Press Conference (NSSPC) held in Pasonanca Park, Zamboanga City circa 1963. Palmer was then working alongside Filipino community members in support of government and community development priorities. She was one of the over 9,300 Peace Corps Volunteers who have served as co-teachers, youth development facilitators, environment experts or filled other roles requested by the host government.

exploded, resulting in massive economic losses, losses of jobs caused by store closures, and losses of essential goods for struggling neighborhoods.

• Fentanyl dealers who cause overdose deaths generally receive minimal consequences under the law.

• Drug Courts that offer effective treatment have lost their ability to incentivize those who commit crimes driven by addiction to engage in treatment.

A recent survey showed that more than 85% of voters across every political party and each demographic support reforming Proposition 47.

"This initiative is a balanced approach that gives our justice system the tools they need to protect

our communities from criminals while also providing an opportunity for people suffering from addiction to get back on their feet,” said Coronado Mayor Richard Bailey.

“Current policies have contributed to the rise in crime and homelessness throughout the state over the past decade, but this initiative will help reverse those trends and make California a safe place to live and do business once again."

"As a retired San Diego Police Officer and Detective with 29 years of law enforcement experience, I possess a firsthand understanding of the adverse effects of Proposition 47 on the lives of Californians,” Santee Mayor John Minto said. “This initiative is a crucial step towards addressing the rising challenges of homelessness, drug addiction, and theft that plague our communities. Californians, including the residents of Santee, are demanding relief from the escalating

lawlessness that has driven up the cost of goods statewide."

Oceanside Mayor and retired public defender Esther Sanchez said, "The unintended consequences of Prop 47 took out the highly successful drug court program, leading to increased drug addiction and crime and in effect tying the hands of law enforcement protecting our neighborhoods and businesses. This citizens’ initiative gives back tools our communities need to help residents, many times family members, face their addictions and crimes while offering support and a path toward a life with positive options, such as family reunification, a home and jobs."

The Homelessness, Drug Addiction, and Theft Reduction Act would allow for stronger penalties for those engaged in the trafficking of hard drugs or for repeat offenders of retail theft. It will still give first and

Spiritual Life

Court Judges, whom I believe would give honor to the position, as well as for the six new members of my party’s Central Committee. I will also vote for life-changing propositions. And I will vote according to my conscience.

That’s the beauty of living in a country where democracy is a way of life. Every one eligible to vote can speak out through the ballot.

After the result of the primary election, the electorate can now move on to select from the two best winners for each elective position and to vote in the General Election on November 2024.

This is a significant election and all Filipino Americans who are eligible to vote but are not yet registered voter should register and vote. Let your vote count. Call the San Diego County Registrar of Voters (858) 565-5800.

This brings me to reflect on a chapter, Submission to the Authorities in the Book of Romans.

“Everyone must submit himself to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except that which God has established. The

This is how you can recognize the Spirit of God: Every spirit that acknowledges that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, but every spirit that does not acknowledge Jesus is not from God... You, dear children, are from God and have overcome them, because the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world. (1 John 4:2, 4)

There was an oppressive heaviness in the air. I had an overwhelming feeling of being alone. I felt like no one cared - like I was a failure. These thoughts and feelings were incredibly real. They consumed me and to some extent, even paralyzed me. Relationships became stressed, problems became overwhelming and a general veil of darkness came over me. As I prayed and sought God, I began to feel as if He wasn't even hearing me. It became obvious that I was facing some intense spiritual warfare. I knew that the only way to combat it was through focused and intense prayer. Request a prayer mentor.

The first step is to realize the truth of where the battle comes from. Remember the words of Paul:

"For our struggle is not against

MARIA SHRIVER

Continued from page 1

Starla Lewis, Master Teacher & Author to name a few!

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Aurora S. Cudal-Rivera

My Personal Testimony

authorities that exist has been established by God. Consequently, he who rebels against the authority is rebelling against what god has instituted, and those who do so will bring judgment on themselves. For rulers hold no terror for those who do right, but those who do wrong. Do you want to be free from fear of the one in authority? Then do what is right and he will commend you. For he is God’s servant to do you good. But if you do wrong, be afraid, for he does not bear the sword for nothing. He is God’s servant, an agent of wrath to bring punishment on the wrong doer. Therefore, it is necessary to submit to the authorities, not only because of possible punishment but also because of conscience. This is also why you pay taxes, for the authorities are God’s servants, who give their full time to governing. Give everyone what you owe him: if you owe taxes, pay taxes; if revenue, then revenue; if respect, then respect; if honor, then honor.” (Romans

13:1-7, NIV).

As we elect our government leaders, it is worthwhile to ponder on Leon Wagner’s essay, The World Needs Men (and Women) …who cannot be bought; whose word is their bond; who put character above wealth; who are larger than their vocations; who do not hesitate to take chances; who will not lose their identity in a crowd; who will be as honest in small things as in great things; who will make no compromise with wrong; whose ambitions are not confined to their own selfish desires; who will not say they do it “because everybody else does it”; who are true to their friends through good report and evil report, in adversity as well as in prosperity; who do not believe that shrewdness and cunning are the best qualities for winning success; who are not ashamed to stand for the truth when it is unpopular; who can say “no” with emphasis. Although the rest of the world say “yes”.

flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms." (Ephesians 6:12)

Acknowledge that the enemy is trying to trip you up. Audibly command the enemy to leave you alone. Recruit focused prayer support to join you in the battle against the enemy. Remember, "the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world."

As you face the enemy, God will give you the strength and hope you need for each moment. Cling to Him, release your burdens and battles to Him. He will guide your steps. Know that the promises He gave you in the light hold true through the darkness. Then, one day, you will realize that the incredible battle you were in has been won and

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Last Sunday our gospel spoke about how Jesus proclaimed the message of his mission after his conquest of the devil in the desert. From the desert, Jesus brings us on Sunday to “a high mountain,” where he was “transfigured” and was revealed as God’s “beloved Son” (Mk 9: 2-10). The voice from the cloud tells us to “listen to him.” At his transfiguration, he foreshadows the divine reality of baptism where we become God’s “beloved” children, sharing in his divine sonship. The Transfiguration was one of the shining moments of Jesus as narrated in the Gospels, revealing his identity and a glimpse of his glory as God’s “beloved Son.” Intended to anticipate his death and resurrection, to alleviate the disciples’ fear as they failed to understand his prediction, this incident also foreshadowed the divine reality of baptism. Let us look at how this allusion was made. This was how Jesus was revealed at the Transfiguration. It was first heard at the Jordan River during his baptism, coming from the same “voice.” And finally at Calvary, something similar was likewise heard, surprisingly from a centurion: “Truly, this man was God’s Son” (Mk. 15:39). Imagine a pagan declaring his faith as he saw Jesus take his last breath! Three times, Jesus’ divine “sonship” was declared in wonderful progression. The first two times by from a “voice”; the third by a pagan who suddenly turned to faith. These are allusions to baptism. The Catechism of the Church tells us that baptism is a sacrament of faith, through which we receive our “sonship” (CCC 1253). Thus, parents and godparents

are asked at the start of the baptismal rite what they asked of the Church, and they answer: “Faith.” In the case of the pagan, he received faith from Jesus himself, who gave him his “sonship.”

Jesus has a lot to tell us here and we really need to “listen to him.” His Transfiguration is a beautiful story of God’s love for us. “God so loved the world that He gave His only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish, but may have eternal life (Jn. 3:16). Jesus is God’s “only Son” whom He gave to the world out of love. For believing this (Jesus is truly Son of God), the pagan centurion immediately received eternal life: his “sonship.” To show us the extent of God’s love, the First Reading (Gen. 22:1-2, 9a, 10-13, 15-18) tells us what it is like for a father to sacrifice his only son the way God did for us. Abraham’s story unmistakably foreshadows God’s love in sacrificing his Son for us. In him, we see the Father, who dearly loves His beloved Son (“in Whom I am well-pleased” ), yet gave him up for love of us! In Isaac, we see Jesus who carried his own wood up the hill of Calvary and obediently submitted to his Father’s Will. In this ancient story, we can

feel the deepest dimensions of God’s love on Mt. Tabor. He not only loves His Son, but He loves us, too, His fallen, wayward children. We are actually the ones who deserve death, yet, just as Abraham said, “God Himself will provide the lamb” who takes our place instead. This is love beyond all telling.

Summing up the episodes on the mountains of Tabor and Moriah, Paul tells us in the Second Reading (Rom. 8:31-34) their implications on our “sonship” in baptism: “If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare His own Son but handed Him over for us, how will He not also give us everything else with Him?” The apostle urges us to have no fear in our sonship in Jesus, because he “is at the right hand of God, who intercedes for us.” The love that provided the Lamb who takes away the sin of the world is a love that is eternal, that never stops working for us. Let us live then our baptism without fear, but, rather, with unshakable faith as we pray in the Psalm: “I will walk before the Lord in the land of the living.

As mentioned in my homilies since we began the season of Lent last Ash Wednesday, Lent is a forty day preparation for the renewal of our baptismal promises. Let us look more deeply how much we have lived up to the promises we made through our parents and god parents during the day we were baptized as children; if baptized as adults, the promises we made ourselves before the presence of our parents and god parents. This season of Lent would help us make our renewal more meaningful and truly a beginning of the newness of life that Easter brings with the Resurrection of Jesus.

God is the victor. Don't give up! Jesus didn't come as a king, but as a helpless infant (Luke 2). Although he was perfectly God and perfectly human at the same time (John 1:14), he lived his life as a humble laborer. After he began his ministry, he demonstrated humble service to others in the miracles he performed, as well as in his instruction to his disciples. When the time came for him to die, he submitted to his Father's divine will (Mark 14:36). And now, seated in power at the right hand of God, he intercedes on our behalf (Acts 5:29-32). As the perfect model for godly leadership, Jesus set the perfect example of humility. Ask God to help you follow Jesus' example as you seek to demonstrate the kind of humility that will cause others to see Jesus in you. <(((><

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Bakit nga ba’t bahagi ng ating buhay ang pagdurusa?

May mga naghihirap, nagugutom, walang matirahan May mga biktima ng sakuna, pandaraya at karahasan May mga nagkakasakit, may mga nawawalan ng Kalayaan.

Tunay nga bang mahal tayo ng Diyos? Tanong ng iba.

Kung tunay ngang mahal tayo, bakit Niya tayo pinapayagang maghirap at magdusa?

Hindi madaling unawain kung bakit tayo nagdurusa Subalit sa puso ay alam natin na ang pagdurusa ay isang pagsubok sa ating pananampalataya.

Hindi ba ninyo napupuna?

Kung kailan tayo naghihirap at saka tayo lalong napapalapit sa Kanya Ang pagdurusa ay isang

paalaala na hindi natin kayang mabuhay na nagiisa

Ang tulong ng Maykapal ay kakailanganin Sapagkat Siya ang may hawak ng buhay at kapalaran natin. Noong nagkatawang tao ang Panginoong Diyos Siya ay hinamak, pinako sa krus, nagdanas ng matinding pagdurusa Hindi nagreklamo, ang pagdurusa ay tinanggap ng lubusan Alam Niyang ang susunod ay kaluwalhatian sa Kanyang Kaharian.

Hindi maaring ihiwalay ang sakripisyo at pagdurusa sa pagmamahal Pagisipan natin. Paano nga ba ang magmahal?

Pagmasdan ang Krus, tanungin ang sarili at magnilay-nilay!

Handa tayong ialay ang sarili upang ang iba ay mabuhay?

Sa mga sandaling tayo ay naghihirap at nagdurusa Pagkakataon na dapat tayong kumapit sa ating Pananampalataya

Sa Panginoong Diyos tayo sumunod at magtiwala

At ng ipagkaloob ang biyayang Siya ay ating makapling sa buhay sa kabila.

Fr. Agustin T. Opalalic

Salvador

What’s Safer for Domestic Violence Survivors: Home or the Streets?

By Selen Ozturk/eMS

Domestic violence is among the leading causes of homelessness, as victims often face low funds, poor credit and police evictions.

At a Friday, February 16 Ethnic Media Services briefing, domestic violence prevention advocates and a formerly unhoused survivor discussed how domestic violence often leads to homelessness and shared firsthand experiences of homelessness as a result of IPV.

The impact of domestic violence on homelessness

Domestic violence, also known as intimate partner violence (IPV), involves “violence, abuse or aggression committed by a former or current intimate partner,” said Dr. Anita Hargrave, Assistant Adjunct Professor at UCSF.

Last month, to better understand the experiences of IPV survivors currently experiencing homelessness, the UCSF Benioff Homelessness and Housing Initiative released Toward Safety, a report analyzing IPV data from June 2023 in the California Statewide Study of People Experiencing Homelessness (CASPEH) — the largest representative study of homelessness since the mid-1990s.

Key to stopping this cycle is education including “violence prevention and healthy relationship education programs for youth, and trauma-informed behavioral intervention accountability programs for individuals who have caused harm,” said White-Reid.

In February 2023, URINYC advocated for the passage of a state bill redefining domestic violence under the New York City Human Rights Law to include economic abuse, which includes coerced debt and gives victims expanded protections.

Just as crucial is economic investment, including housing support and IPV-related debt prevention, she explained: “Economic abuse, experienced by 98% of survivors, often serves as a

primary reason they stay or return to an abusive partner.”

URINYC also offers workforce development, employment assistance and affordable housing services including People and Animals Living Safely (PALS).

“We learned that 50% of survivors would not leave a dangerous situation if they could not take their pets with them,” said White-Reid.

“PALS is the only dedicated program in New York City, and among a few nationally, allowing domestic violence survivors to live and heal together with their pets as they work to achieve economic stability.”

A firsthand experience Without resources like these, “I chose homelessness over returning to abuse,” said Desiree Martinez, who was unhoused for five years in Fresno, California until 2016 due to IPV.

“Lacking insurance after a mental breakdown, I was desperate for assistance at a local mental health office but ended up being confined as they deemed me at-risk,” continued Martinez, who is now Executive Director of homelessness advocacy nonprofit We Are NOT Invisible.

“National hotlines directed me to county resources, yet there was limited local support. After not meeting the criteria for a bed at a domestic violence shelter, I found myself at a homeless shelter sleeping

on the floor amongst others,” added Martinez, who suggested that shelters reserve beds for domestic violence survivors, given the high prevalence of homelessness among them. “It’s especially dangerous for women to survive the streets,” she said. “In Fresno County there was a lot of sex trafficking, a lot of drugs. You stay up all night in order not to be raped. You have nowhere to change, no shower, no heat. You don’t feel like a female. You’re scared constantly and all you want is shelter — no wonder a lot of people choose to go back home.”

“The shelter’s gender restrictions left me exposed to the streets once again, surviving on a fixed disability income while facing steep rents,” Martinez explained. “If it wasn’t for a 30% income affordable housing voucher, I would still probably be on the streets, and who knows what would have happened to me. Yet, I’m nervous every year because the rent continues to increase, but the voucher does not.”

“You flee an abusive relationship because you want safety, but being unhoused makes you vulnerable to thousands of strangers. For a time, I’d ended up going back because I’d rather be abused by one I knew,” she added. “We need to educate people about what’s happening to us in the streets — that we’re good people too who just want a permanent home.”

FIL-AM RECOGNIZED & AWARDED AS NATIONAL ASSOCIATE OF THE YEAR

LOS ANGELES, CA -- Arlene

Gualvez Calditaran is being recognized as Silverado Associate of The Year for Silverado Communities.

Silverado Communities is the leading memory care facility. They have a total of 27 communities located in major locations in the United States. In their website, we quote their Philosophy & Values as:” The best care comes from compassion, and when clinical skill and experience are added in, something truly special happens. At Silverado we aim to create the perfect blend of these traits to enrich the lives of our residents, their families, and our own associates. To us, dementia does not mean a person’s life is over. With the proper care individuals can maximize their quality of life, so we have made it our mission to provide the highest quality of care and support to those with memory impairments. Our success can only be defined by one measure - the satisfaction of those whose lives we touch.”

The congratulatory letter from Loren B. Shook, the President, CEO, and Chairman of the Board of Silverado sent to Arlene Gualvez Calditaran reads in part: “Your dedication,

Daniela Stranner recalls her 'unexpected' showbiz

MANILA -- From a simple school girl to a rising Gen Z Kapamilya star, Daniela Stranner recalled how she started her career in show business.

In an intimate media conference, the half-German Stranner said she wasn't really planning on joining showbiz.

"This was never the part of the plan po. Actually my very first audition was nakita lang po akong naglalakad sa mall," she said.

"Nakita po ako ng isang talent scout ng Star Magic. At first, I didn't believe honestly na taga-Star Magic siya or taga-ABS-CBN siya kasi I didn't experience anyone talking to me like that eh," she recalled.

She was only 17 when she was first discovered by the Star Magic talent scout and admittedly was clueless on how the entertainment industry works.

"I was just a normal athlete-student doing my own thing. I've never done anything except school," she said.

That's why Stranner was surprised when former Star Magic artist head Johnny Manahan offered her a management contract with ABSCBN's talent arm.

Awarding

Stranner still vividly remembers that day. "Pinapunta po ako dito (ABSCBN) to do an audition a VTR... and it was so like out of nowhere na parang sabi nila imi-meet daw namin 'yung head ng Star Magic, which is Mr. M (Johnny Manahan) that day. So ako, 'Who's that?' Eh I don't know anything, I was like clueless. Tapos pumunta kami ng office ni Mr. M. We were like 30-plus. I think after that, pinag-stay ako, pinauwi 'yung iba and then that day, I met Tita Monch (Star Magic road manager) and then 'yun na po 'yung tinawag na sinabi ni Mr. M, 'Okay give Daniela a two-year contract.' Ayun po ang sinabi ni Mr. M. My very first audtion, I got the contract na po," she said. Without any experience, Stranner took the opportunity and has now

stepped up as one of the new generation of stars of Star Magic.

"I took it kasi it was so out of the blue, and parang sabi sa akin ni Tita Monch na parang it's rare for an artista to experience this kind of thing," she explained.

Stranner has starred in several ABS-CBN teleseryes starting with "Make It With You" to the more recent "Fractured" and "Senior High." (MNS)

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Top photo shows Arlene Calditaran, 2nd from left, with daughters Yza, Marione & Ailene ( Courtesy photo)