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For the past 17 years, The Filipino Express has provided the Filipino American community the best news, arts and entertainment coverage from around the United States and the Philippines.
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This website includes selected articles from this week's edition of the Filipino Express. Not all the stories published in the printed version appear on this site.
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Abraham Lincoln isn’t only known today as the “Great Emancipator” but also as the first U.S. president who declared Thanksgiving Day as a national holiday in 1863, which eventually became an annual holiday in 1941.
Lincoln recognized that Americans [have] forgotten God as the United States has “grown in numbers, wealth and power as no other nation has grown.”
He said: “We have forgotten the gracious hand which preserved us in peace and multiplied and enriched and strengthened us, and we have vainly imagined in the deceitfulness of our hearts that all these blessings were produced by some superior wisdom, adding that “intoxicated with unbroken success, we have become too self-sufficient to feel the necessity of redeeming and preserving grace, too proud to pray to the God that made us.”
Lincoln’s words are worth repeating for they are true as they still are today. Despite the acknowledgment of dependence to a Creator who graciously provides for the people, we somehow fail to extend our gratitude to Him.
But as one nation, and mortal people, it is important to acknowledge, give thanks, and praises the blessings we have received from God who made us.
“It is the duty of nations as well as of men to owe their dependence upon the overruling power of God; to confess their sins and transgressions in humble sorrow, yet with assured hope that genuine repentance will lead to mercy and pardon, and to recognize the sublime truth, announced in the Holy Scriptures and proved by all history, that those nations are blessed whose God is the Lord,” Lincoln said.
On this Thanksgiving Day, it is our hope that we are reminded of Lincoln’s words, in spirit and in truth.
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Protecting Filipino journalists
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NEW YORK --- It is upsetting to hear of the predicaments our fellow journalists face in our motherland: they are mugged, harassed, intimidated, jailed and worst, killed in the line of duty.
Recently, according to a statement released by the National Union of Journalists of the Philippines, “Gene Boyd Lumawag was gunned down in Jolo, Sulu and Herson Hinolan, a commentator of Bombo Radyo in Kalibo, Aklan, was shot and critically injured.”
In 11 months of this year alone, there have been eleven deaths. Senator “Nene” Pimentel said that Michael Llorin, a photojournalist, was shot dead in Quezon City and became the 11th victim the day after Hinolan was shot.
According to the NUJP, “not one suspect has been convicted in the 59 killings since 1986.” It is really an alarming situation that needs to be addressed by the government immediately.
Reacting to an e-mail sent by Bobby Reyes of the Media Breakfast Club in Los Angeles to President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, Sen. Pimentel indicated four proposals in his e-mail.
First, he said guns should not be allowed to be carried outside of the home except by law enforcement people. I have a problem with this proposal knowing the difficulty in enforcing such ban.
If I am not mistaken, the same strategy was used during Martial Law era and yet it did not work out. It is still a prevailing perception among media people that some law enforcement officials are the ones contracted to pull off “salvage missions.”
Second, he said to identify, prosecute and jail the culprits involved in killing people. This statement is easier said that done. Haven't we heard enough of the Galman case? Until now, we still don't know who killed the late Sen. Ninoy Aquino.
Third, he said to grant people who are criticized by the media the right of reply. I don't know about Max Soliven (who had a run-in with Roberto Romulo months ago) but I think most newspapers do this. It is the editor's responsibility, if not the management of the paper, to extend such courtesy.
And lastly, Sen. Pimentel proposes to decriminalize libel so that it does not become another tool to suppress freedom of speech.
I fully agree with this proposal. It is time to change the law. Unlike in the U.S., libel is considered a criminal case instead of civil. Hence, some journalists convicted of libel by the courts continue to languish in jails.
In a free society, governments have since recognized media as their partners in nation building. Quite apart from the proposals of the senator, perhaps the president may want to tap on Vice President Noli De Castro to protect journalists. After all, he once was a media man himself.
Send comments to rickyxpres@aol.com or visit Website at PinoyOnBoard.com.
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