Chip Tsao apologizes for ‘maid-country’ remark
by S. DEDACE and J. SISANTE
from GMANews.TV

Excerpt of Chip Tsao’s ‘The War At Home’ column

Manila has just claimed sovereignty over the scattered rocks in the South China Sea called the Spratly Islands, complete with a blatant threat from its congress to send gunboats to the South China Sea to defend the islands from China if necessary. This is beyond reproach. The reason: There are more than 130,000 Filipina maids working as US$3,580-a-month cheap labor in Hong Kong. As a nation of servants, you don’t flex …

COMMENTARY BY PERRY DIAZ
             If there’s anything that President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo would pay for $1 billion, it would be a photo opportunity with President Barack Obama.   Just imagine a picture of the two presidents side by side with the flags of their respective countries in the background.  That would be awesome!  It would be worth billions of dollars in extreme makeover for Gloria.  
           It could change her image from an international pariah to a “partner” in the war against global recession and terror.  And perhaps — cross your fingers – it could even …

Is Obama a sex symbol? Read this interesting article by Judith Warner of the New York Times –Perry Diaz
Sometimes a President Is Just a President
By Judith Warner
New York Times
The other night I dreamt of Barack Obama. He was taking a shower right when I needed to get into the bathroom to shave my legs, and then he was being yelled at by my husband, Max, for smoking in the house. It was not clear whether Max was feeling protective of the president’s health or jealous because of the cigarette.
The other …

COMMENTARY BY PERRY DIAZ
Ever since Gloria Arroyo became president in 2001, I don’t remember her going on a junket abroad without her husband, Mike.  Why not?  After all, it’s free — paid for by Juan de la Cruz.
However, ever since Joc-joc Bolante was deported by the US, Mike had been avoiding going to the US.  He even missed the Pacquiao-De la Hoya boxing bout — a “no miss” event for an aficionado like Mike.  Makes me wonder if Joc-joc had spilled the beans on his pal Mike to the US authorities. 
The rumor that has …

COMMENTARY BY PERRY DIAZ
As expected, President Gloria Arroyo failed to meet with President Barack Obama during the National Breakfast Prayer in Washington, DC.  Arroyo should know by now that Obama had been avoiding her for obvious reasons — she’s ‘bad news.’  Once again, Arroyo’s unscheduled ’spur of the moment’ junket to the US manifests her desperate attempt to connect with Obama at all cost.
With the scandal involving fraud and corruption in the bidding of construction projects funded by the World Bank, there are reasons why Obama shouldn’t touch Arroyo with a ten-foot …

COMMENTARY BY PERRY DIAZ
A few days ago, the Republican Party elected Michael Steele as their first African-American national chairman. That the good news. The bad news is: at about the same time, Carol Carter, a county Republican official, distributed an email mocking African-American victims of Hurricane Katrina. It seems to me that every time the Republican Party makes one step forward, it takes two steps back.
It doesn’t matter if an African-American is at the helm of the party as long as its base is still controlled by people who don’t …

COMMENTARY BY PERRY DIAZ
In a spur of the moment change in her itinerary, the junketing Philippine President, Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, is heading to the U.S. again for another chance to meet President Barack Obama.  Obama will be the guest speaker at the National Prayer Breakfast on Feb. 5, 2009, in Washington, DC.
Gloria had been trying to connect or meet with Obama since the U.S. presidential campaign. If I were Gloria, I would stay close to the men’s room during the event. I am pretty sure that Obama would be visting …

PACQUIAO’S DOCTORATE (HONORIS CAUSA)
By Maloney L. Samaco
PhilBoxing.com
Sat, 31 Jan 2009
It was officially announced by the administration of the Southwestern University that the world’s number one pound-for–pound boxer Manny Pacquiao will be awarded the degree Doctor in Human Kinetics, “Honoris Causa.” The conferment will be done on February 18, 2009.“Honoris causa” is a Latin phrase which means “for the sake of the honor” and it is an academic degree conferred by a university in which the usual requirements such as matriculation, residence, lessons and the passing of examinations are waived.Usually the …

House body clears banned contractors – “Lutong Macao!”
This is one of the most blatant display of arrogance and abuse of power.  The World Bank did its own investigation of collusion among these three contractors before they wer banned.  For the House Committee on Public Works and Highways to ignore the evidence presented by the World Bank once again manifests how deep corruption is in the Philippines.  What the House committee did was pure “lutong macao.”
If the House committee members believe that the World Bank would exonerate the three contractors “cleared” by …

 
Amador Bernabe fired for ‘un-Australian toilet habits’
January 24, 2009 
Townsville Bulletin
A MAN who uses water instead of toilet paper says he was sacked for his “un-Australian” toilet habits.
Amador Bernabe, 43, is a machine operator in Townsville on a working visa from the Philippines, the Townsville Bulletin reports.
On Thursday, he claims his foreman followed him into the bathrooms questioning his toilet hygiene.
Mr Bernabe said his employer, Townsville Engineering Industries (TEI), sacked him yesterday for not going to the toilet the Australian way.
“I went to go to the toilet and I took a …